Cloud computing is
getting bigger as time goes by, and technology is changing our daily lives. The
next big IT goal is healthcare computing, which is expected to grow in the
coming years, but not only in developed countries. It also has big potential in
the EU.
The global economic recession has made major suppliers of technology
less interested about investing in developed countries. Funds for healthcare
development in Europe are decreasing, and emerging economies in Asia-Pacific
are seen as more attractive markets than European countries or the US.
According to a new report published by business intelligence analysts,
GBI Research, despite the economic recession, European countries still care
strongly about health issues, and using the latest technologies to improve
developments in the healthcare sector; which is where cloud computing comes in.
The report also says that the advantages offered by cloud computing include the
reduction of costs, improved accessibility of applications and off-site
management of data, which increases efficiency and security in data management.
The EU's e-Health programme defends and promotes tools based on
information and communication technologies used to assist and enhance the
prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and management of health and
lifestyle. The plan refers to, for example, interaction between patients and
health-service providers, institution-to-institution data transmission, or
peer-to-peer communication between patients or health professionals.
Co-ordinating actions and promoting synergies between related policies
and stakeholders is EU’s priority to move towards a ‘European e-Health Area’.
Some of the specific objectives are to create an electronic health record
architecture, to set up health information networks between points of care, to
ensure online health services such as information on healthy living and illness
prevention and to develop tele-consultation, e-Prescribing, e-Referral and
e-Reimbursement capabilities.
The first action of the eHealth plan started in 2004 and finished in
2010.The objective was to call member states to develop tailored national and
regional e-Health strategies to respond to their own specific needs. Now, the
new action plan for 2012-2020, seeks to consolidate the actions that have been
addressed to date and take them a step further, in the context of the EU 2020
Strategy and the Digital Agenda for Europe.
In addition, these are also being applied at an international level.
Europe and the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2010
to promote a common approach on the interoperability of electronic health
records and on education programmes for information technology and health
professionals.
e-Health offers lots of benefits to medical device suppliers and their
customers, but some aspects need attention. Everything related with Healthcare
needs high data protection and security, but cloud computing often sends data
through insecure connections. Encryption technologies seem promising, but have
not yet satisfied industry needs.
Another concern about cloud-based medical devices is geographical
storage. Some countries defend the idea of retaining their citizen’s data
inside the country, where their laws have jurisdiction.
Trying to solve this concern, the European Patients Smart Open Services
(epSOS) presented on 13 April a pilot cross-border e-Health service, co-founded
by the European Commission. After three years of working, their efforts have
culminated in the large scale pilot entering into operational mode.
From now on, European patients that want to take part in the epSOS
pilot, as well as spSOS health professionals, can use and evaluate the
cross-border patient summary, e-Prescription and e-Dispensation services. The
main objective of the project is to demonstrate that medical treatment for
citizens residing in other countries can be improved by providing health
professionals with the necessary patient data in a secure electronic format to
give them a second opinion.
There is still a long way to go for ICT- related e-Health policies, and
a lot of actions must be taken to transform the healthcare system from
physician-centric to patient-centric.
The key to making it easier to obtain these objectives, according to
the European Commission, is to facilitate co-operation between regions and
states.
NEREA RIAL
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