EHTEL : Interoperability in eHealth

mardi 28 octobre 2003, par Denz Martin D.

EHTEL : European Health TELematics Association

EHTEL - the European platform : www.ehtel.org

Interoperability in eHealth

Dr.med. Martin D. Denz

EHTEL A1 Healthcare Authorities

Swiss Medical Association FMH

Interoperability, 030525, Geneva, ITU standardization on eHealth

Téléchargez le fichier au format PowerPoint (ppt) :

Goals of healthcare (skills needed)

Cure (knowledge mgt)
Care (relationship mgt)
Health management (information, communication and coordination)

Need for interoperability

Healthcare is information intensive
ICT are a major tool for information intensive sectors as healthcare
The use of ICT in healthcare is eHealth
The full exploitation of the benefits of eHealth technologies requires a robust, secure and interoperable infrastructure

Knowledge-based clinical workplace

Enabling tools and necessary skills

Improvement in access and quality of care, cost benefits and productivity gains will only be possible, if eHealth technologies are applied as

enabling tools for re-organi-sation and supported by the necessary skills

Source : E. Liikanen, Commissioner, Brussels, 22 May, 2003

Organisation, logistics of care

British Medical Journal, 26 October 2002

Chronic diseases in a changing world

Source : Harvard Public School of Health’s project on the global burden of disease

Ministerial Declaration on eHealth, Brussels, 22 May 2003

Full exploitation of eHealth goes beyond local information systems and internet based provision of information to integrated or linked eHealth systems, that serve the needs of citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, health service providers as well as policy makers

Source : E. Liikanen, Commissioner, Brussels, 22 May, 2003

Paradigm shifts

EHTEL’s Working Groups need interoperability…

3 active Actor Working Groups :

A1 : Healthcare Authorities
A2 : Healthcare Professionals
A4 : Patients/Consumers/Citizens Associations

3 active Thematic Working Groups :

T1 : Standards & Interoperability
T2 : eHealth
T6 : Law & Ethics (including security and privacy issues)
T3 : ePrescription (kick-off 17 October 2002)

Other groups :

WP3 : EHTEL-Like Organisations (ELOs)

…because they need to communicate

ICT and systems development

eHealth is not a technological issue
eHealth is change management in health care by using ICT

Standard = negotation process

A standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognised body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.

Example : A skilled professional is one who follows the standards developed and accepted by his profession in his context.

>>>Consensus does not necessarily imply unanimity<<<

Source : adapted from de Moor, 2003

Coherence through models

There is a need for a general health care data model , an essential building block for developing comprehensive, robust application level interfaces.

If available, such a data model could serve as a key enabling factor in achieving international convergence of the various informatics standardisation efforts.

The greatest impact of those models, initially developed to improve interfacing of heterogeneous systems, will come over time from serving as the foundation for a new generation of health care applications with improved functionality, stability, flexibility and interoperability at lower cost (improved efficiency).