EHTO Trends in Health Telematics in the European Union


	Updated: Dec 6, 96
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The provision of a comprehensive and high-quality public health service in combination with access for all social levels of the population, independent of income, has been the main objective of Austrian health policy over the last few decades. Medical standards and the availability of public health services are comparable with those of other industrialised western countries. As in all states, there is the question of meeting the rising costs of health care. The use of IT in the health care sector should make a contribution to reducing the health care budget whilst assuring equivalent or higher levels of service.

In the Austrian health care system IT is used for administration purposes, especially to hospitals where it is very common, though there is a great disparity in the telematics infrastructure between different hospitals. Some only use paper records with perhaps a stand-alone medical application, others have an in-house electronic medical record system, and still others are networked to other hospitals and have easy access to patient data.

About 30% of general and specialist practitioners have information systems, which are used mainly for patient administration and clearing claims with the statutory health insurance funds. Usage by dentists is higher. A programme allowing the exchange of medical records between dentists is already in operation and used by a number of dentists.

At the moment there is no national strategy for medical data processing. As a first step the Ministry of Health and Consumer Protection was establishing (late 1995) a committee for the national co-ordination of IT in the health care sector in connection with EDI. In addition the Austrian Government is working on a national and international information technology strategy, in which the health care sector is one of ten defined focal points. The strategy should be completed by the summer of 1996. The priorities for the health care sector will be:

establishment of networks in the health care sector
remote consultation
reduction of resource-management costs and medical treatment with the help of IT

At the moment pilot studies on a social chipcard - with the aim of replacing the existing social security card - are running in some physicians' practices in two provinces (Burgenland and Lower Austria - 3 general practitioners, 5000 patients). The card holds mainly administrative basic data (personal identification and social security entitlement), but in the first stage no medical information will be included. The Ministry of Defence is also to start a chipcard project in the health care field. In addition a small group of hospitals in Lower Austria are taking part in a pilot EDI project, to assist in hospital resources management.

IT will also be needed to provide a basis for a new service-oriented hospital financing system. This specifies that the services rendered by hospitals will not be paid for on the basis of days of care, but on the basis of diagnosis and special medical treatment. All relevant patient data will be sent electronically to the Ministry of Health and Consumer Protection at intervals.

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