UK, Germany, France and Spain collectively spend more than $6 billion on healthcare information technology (healthcare IT) while regional adoption stands at almost 80%. Healthcare IT markets in these countries are ready to embark upon the next level of digitalisation where providers move from data capturing solutions to those that can derive value from data through improving information sharing, analytics and clinical decision support.

France embarked upon the Digital Hospital Strategy as part of its five-year plan (from 2012 to 2017) with the goal of fully digitizing the care delivery system by the end of this period. In spite of a high level of EMR adoption, the country suffers from delays and cost over-runs in comparison to the initial digitalisation plans and intends to rapidly progress towards Stage 5–7 EMRs over the next three years. Integrating care delivery is a key priority for the health system as a whole, which includes developing facets like remote health monitoring, telemedicine, mHealth and IoMT, which enable care delivery outside the hospital.

Between December 2016 and March 2017, Frost & Sullivan conducted a survey of IT managers from 198 hospitals across Western European countries. Findings of the survey were further investigated through in-depth discussions with market vendors and Frost & Sullivan industry thought leaders. Outcomes of the research have been collated into a 4-part series detailing the HCIT landscape across EU4 (The United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain).

Our research found that only a little more than 15% of large hospitals across EU share data beyond their organization. This has been a huge detriment to efficient and productive health data utilization across all countries included in this study. However, with changing care paradigms, such as focus on patient-centricity, innovation in care delivery models, and demand for workflow efficiency, improving health data continuity will be a key goal for both governments and providers over the next five years. As a result, interoperability, and standards development and adoption will be major priorities across health systems.

France is also targeting improving collaboration and data sharing between healthcare providers and care settings, especially to enable remote care for the elderly and the chronically ill. Inconsistent implementation of initiatives, such as the Dossier Medical Patient (DMP), for establishment of HCIT infrastructure has resulted in fragmented adoption and created complex data silos. To achieve the goal of improving population health, France will need a more harmonized approach to healthcare digitalisation. The eHealth Strategy 2020 has resulted in a business environment conducive to the growth of eHealth vendors. Business models that demonstrate positive clinical and financial outcomes along with partnerships with key stakeholders will be the key to success.

Consumers are playing an increasingly evident role in managing their own health. More than 20% of patients in France use connected devices with a high propensity for using them for chronic disease management. France also showcases an unusually high affinity amongst physicians to advocate use of connected devices to support home monitoring. As a result, telehealth technologies and remote care delivery models will emerge as a key growth opportunity and the government is already working towards establishing a regulatory framework that makes sustainable business models through reimbursements possible in this arena.

This is only a sample of insights that you can gain through our research. Key questions answered in this study include:
• What are the current trends, challenges and drivers for healthcare IT investment?
• What will be the most promising growth opportunities and key investment areas over the next five years?
• How is health IT adoption evolving?
• What will be the impact and adoption of new technologies? How will these change current industry paradigms and/or bring in new business
models?
• How are the initiatives at the national and the regional level for eHealth adoption impacting the market?
• What are the current vendor landscape and the tiers of competition in select segments (e.g., Total Health IT, EHR, PCIS)? How are they
expected to evolve over the next five years?
• What do healthcare providers expect when investing in healthcare?
• What are the key vendor-/solution-selection criteria of providers while investing in health IT?