VoiceIt: “There are many opportunities in the e-Health market”

(HealthTech Wire / VoiceIt) - In the field of e-Health, the World of Health-IT Conference and Exhibition (WoHiT 2008) in Copenhagen, Denmark, will bring together industry and policy leaders from all over Europe. Esko Aho, the former Finnish Prime Minister and current president of the Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA, will be one of the keynote speakers. In an interview with HealthTechWire, he advises companies to forge partnerships and to take advantage of national and European funding opportunities.

Published: 10/29/2008

Mr. Aho, at what stage do you see the European e-Health market in October 2008?

I think we are talking about a market that is clearly progressing, and it is clearly increasing in size. There are many interesting business opportunities available in the e-Health sector. But in order to progress further, we urgently need national infrastructures and technical standards for e-Health systems like, for example, electronic patient records.

As the president of the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development you have access to many different sectors of the economy. Is the e-Health market in any way special, or is it an emerging market like many others?

I do indeed think that it is a very special kind of market with some very specific challenges. The first challenge is that, in e-Health, a systematic approach is necessary in order to get ahead. We need top-down initiatives and bottom-up initiatives simultaneously if we are to be successful. Let me give you an example from Finland: in our local and regional hospitals, more than 95 per cent of all medical data is available in digital form. So our hospitals are very active. But these bottom-up activities do not create high value, because there is no national architecture. The second challenge is that e-Health is a typical public as well as private endeavour. This means that we need public-private partnerships, and we need government institutions to build up and oversee the national architecture. The third challenge that I would like to mention is not specific for the e-Health market, but it is still a challenge: e-Health is not about technology per se. Rather, technology is a tool for improving processes, and thus products are needed that not only work technically but also offer new methods to operate healthcare.

What recommendations would you make to companies looking to gain a foothold in the e-Health market?

First of all, they need partnerships. Both challenges and projects in e-Health are big, so that small or medium-sized companies will often be too small to operate solutions for themselves. Secondly, it is very important that companies draw on funding opportunities in research and development, and it is important for governments to offer those funding opportunities to companies. Apart from public funding, it is also very helpful to have access to venture capital to gain some independence from running projects. This is what we do with SITRA in Finland: we help innovative companies to find venture capital opportunities. The digital revolution in the healthcare system will not happen overnight. And many products and services that are currently emerging are high-risk endeavours: they promise huge profit, but they can also fail. So funding is an important part of reducing the risks.

What role can the European Union play in this context?

The EU does have a framework programme that provides resources for companies in the e-Health market. In order to allow full use of these possibilities, small and medium-sized companies in particular have to go into partnerships with vendors from other countries. Apart from that, companies that are engaged in e-Health should always keep the European perspective in mind. At the moment, e-Health is predominantly about creating interoperability on a national level. But European interoperability will also become an issue, and indeed projects to enhance cross-border interoperability in Europe are running already. So the e-Health market will increasingly become international, and this offers opportunities for innovative companies outside of their home market.

Where do you see the particular strengths of Finnish companies when it comes to e-Health?

One of our most important assets is certainly that Finland is a leading country in the field of mobile technologies. We also have a solid banking sector that has gone through digital restructuring in recent years pretty successfully. So we can draw on experiences from there. After all, healthcare is also a service industry.

You mentioned banking: do you see any negative effects of the global financial crisis on e-Health in Europe?

I would rather take that as a chance. I would expect some of the innovative spirit from the banking sector to rub off on other industry sectors in the more traditional product and services markets. And one of the sectors where substantial improvement can be made through technological innovations is certainly healthcare. 

How do you expect the European e-Health market to evolve in the next decade or so? What is the message that the WoHiT 2008 in Copenhagen should convey?

I am very confident that, ten years from now, we will have the opportunity to create a well-functioning electronic patient record system in most or even all EU Member States. By that time, we will also have a certain degree of interoperability between the different national systems. At WoHiT 2008 in Copenhagen, we will certainly see that companies and policy leaders are taking the first steps in this direction. But, more importantly, we will see that information and communication technology does have an impact on patient care. The message that I would like to bring forward is that, by using ICT and optimising clinical processes, we will reach a higher quality of patient services and an improvement in cost-effectiveness of the healthcare systems. ICT in healthcare is one answer to budgetary restrictions. With our present structures, we will not be able to meet the demographic changes that Europe is facing.

Mr. Aho, thank you for your time and answers. (HTW)