eHealth Indicators - Use of eHealth

ICT applications and eHealth use

Electronic data Storage

The overall picture emerging from this part of the analysis is that the use of ICT for eHealth purposes varies considerably. On the one hand, the more complex the application gets — in terms of the necessary infrastructure, skills needed by the user, the number of actors and the complexity of the processes involved etc. — the more substantial are the differences between the countries. On the other hand, the overall use rates decrease with growing complexity so that the most complex ones — i.e. those involving the electronic transfer of medical patient data across a network — are used to a larger degree only in a couple of countries.
Electronic storage of administrative patient data is done in 80% of the EU27 GP practices on average. In some countries, shares are at and below the 50% level, going down as far as 26%. Practice size plays a certain role in this regard, with an average gap of 11 percentage points between the smallest and the largest size class.
When it comes to different types of patient data stored for medical purposes, data on diagnoses and medications are stored by the highest share of GP practices (92% of practices storing also administrative patient data), followed by basic medical parameters such as allergies etc. (85%), laboratory results (81%), a patient's symptoms or the reasons for his/her visit (79%), the medical history of a patient, ordered examinations and their results (77% each), results of vital sign measurement (76%) and — with some margin — storage of radiological images (35%).

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Computer use in consultation room

Computers are used for consultation by about 66% of the EU27 GP practices while a Decision Support System (DSS) is available in nearly two thirds of the EU27 practices. DSS supporting diagnoses are more common than those supporting prescribing (59% compared to 32% on EU27 average). Also most DSS systems tend to offer general advice rather than patient specific advice (42% compared to 19%).

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Connectivity

The Internet as well as other, dedicated types of electronic networks are used by about 55% of the European GP practices to connect to other health actors such as laboratories, other GPs or health authorities. About 21% of European GP practices connect to other primary care actors, i.e. other GPs. Between the two types of connections to secondary health actors analysed here — hospitals and specialist practices — there is a noticeable gap. While about one fifth of GP practices connect to hospitals, only somewhat more than one tenth (12%) do the same with specialist practices. A similar situation can be observed in relation to connections to health administration actors. 17% of the practices have a connection to health authorities, compared to only 3% connecting to insurance companies.

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Networking

Connections having to do with social care purposes — in this case to patients' homes and care homes — are virtually non-existent with shares between about 2% and 3% respectively. A notable exception is found in the case of connections to laboratories: with about 40% of the European GP practices, this connection type is used most frequently. Connections to pharmacies are considerably less frequent (used by about 7% of the practices), a finding that is also confirmed by the comparably low use rates for ePrescribing.
While the electronic transfer of patient identifiable data to at least one health actor is done by 48% of the EU27 GP practices, a more patchy picture emerges from the detailed analysis. While the transmission of analytic results from a laboratory to the GP occurs with a comparatively high frequency (40%), other types of data are transferred electronically less often: administrative data are transferred to reimbursers by 15% and to other care providers by 10%. Medical data are transmitted to care providers or other professionals by 10%. ePrescribing is practiced by 6% of the EU27 GP practices, it can today be regarded a reality in three Member States: Denmark (97%), the Netherlands (71%) and Sweden (81%). Medical data exchange across national borders does not occur to any notable extent (0.7% on average).

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Readiness - Usegap

Comparing eHealth readiness with eHealth use — i.e. the availability of ICT infrastructure in a practice with the actual use of eHealth applications — shows varying degrees of untapped potential for higher eHealth use if infrastructure available in the practices were fully used. The Readiness-Use Gap for electronic patient data storage ranges from 8% to 29% on EU27 average, depending on the type of data to be stored. Average gap values for the electronic storage of medical patient data are slightly higher than for administrative patient data storage. The average gap between availability and use of a computer in consultation is at 12%, ranging from 0% in Finland — where all GP practices have a computer in the consultation room and also use it — to 54% in Slovenia. The gap between availability of an Internet connection and the electronic exchange of patient data ranges from 29% to 59% on EU27 average, largely mirroring the fact that this kind of data exchange is currently used to a larger extend only in some countries.