“eHealth is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it,” was how one attendee at eHealth in Amsterdam used Dan Ariely’s famous take on big data, summing up where the sector is today. There is more than a grain of truth in the jibe. But there is real progress. By 2018, 18 EU member countries are set to go live with the exchange of patient records and e-prescriptions. Estonia, the only country in the world to have a nation-wide Electronic Health Record (EHR) system built its eHealth system for only €10m –the equivalent of €7.50 per head. And Mhealth, remote monitoring and artificial intelligence all promise to transform the sector over the next decade. We investigate progress to date.
July 1, 2016
