BONN, GERMANY - (HealthTech Wire / News) - Private research company empirica has presented a draft report of its eHealth Benchmarking study at the European eHealth Conference in Prague. The study is the second in a series of three studies commissioned by the European Commission two years ago.
The researchers at empirica first identified around 90 existing sources of benchmarking data in Europe. “Most of these sources provide valuable data, but the vast majority cover only a single country,” said researcher Ingo Meyer. Only 7 sources were international, and only 2 included all of the 27 EU Member States.
Based on existing benchmarking initiatives, empirica has developed an eHealth benchmarking indicator framework. “The goal is to come to a common understanding on which indicators should be used in eHealth benchmarking projects in the different target groups,” Meyer emphasized. The indicator framework will be made available on the project website in due course, he said (www.ehealth-benchmarking.eu).
Apart from setting up an indicator framework, empirica also put forward proposals for pan-European data gathering in eHealth benchmarking projects. It would be sensible, Meyer argued, to do this kind of analysis not only once but at regular intervals, for example every two years. Options to do so include the Eurostat Household Survey and the Eurobarometer series of studies.
A European eHealth Observatory as a series of dedicated surveys with 20 to 30 detailed questions each would be another way to gather data. The data from these observatories could be used to compare current eHealth activities in Europe. If repeated regularly, the observatories would, over time, become a useful research database for trend analyses as well. (HTW)
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