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Analysing the Regional Needs:
Results of Poland, Sweden and Finland

Poland

by Jaroslaw Feszak

Group A: doctors and nurses

  • The acceptance for the eHealth can be described as average.
  • The reason for that is the lack of knowledge on the eHealth subject and this is also mentioned as the main problem concerning eHealth.
  • The level of threat concerning eHealth applications and data security is not considerable - if we take into consideration the nature of eHealth as a field of medicine which use the latest technology solutions (Internet, telecommunication).
  • The respondents noticed the benefit concerning eHealth dissemination, especially medical information improvement. Exchange of medical information up to now is rated as insufficient. Special stress is laid on the access to the full information (central archive).
  • A majority of respondents expects development of eHealth network and also faster connection to the eHealth network of almost all health care providers.
  • The respondents noticed an increase in migration of people and according to that they noticed travelling patients benefits from the development of eHealth
  • In their opinion eHealth will improve quality of health care
  • In their opinion eHealth will improve cost effectiveness of health care

Group B: Decision makers

  • The number of questionnaires sent back in the responding group should be evaluated as very small despite of the fact that the respondents of these group are the people whose influence on the development of eHealth in Poland should be high.
  • Their knowledge about eHealth should be evaluated as average. The most often mentioned source of their knowledge are media and self education.
  • The level of threat concerning eHealth applications and data security is not considerable (if we take into consideration the nature of eHealth as a field of medicine which use the latest technology solutions (Internet, telecommunication).
  • The respondents noticed benefits connected to eHealth like better access to the health care, especially in the remote areas of the regions.
  • They also mentioned improvement of medical information exchange.
  • The respondents noticed an increase in migration of people and according to that they noticed travelling patients benefits from the development of eHealth.
  • The development of eHealth is evaluated positively, especially on the international level, although there is fear that the development will be insufficient or there are not going to be any changes comparing to present situation.
  • Majority of the respondents would like to assign funds for the eHealth in their institutions


Group C: patients and public

  • Lack of knowledge about eHealth
  • The most often source of knowledge are media, especially newspapers
  • The level of acceptance for eHealth is high
  • The development of eHealth will improve quality of the health care. EHealth can provide equal opportunity for health care service for people of the countries around (equal health care supply for everybody). Almost all health care providers should be connected through the eHealth network in the near future
  • There is a fear concerning security of data and also application of the latest technological solutions which is probably caused by a high percentage of seniors as the survey participants. This group of people does not put much trust in the informatical technology.
  • Expectations mostly concern health care strengthening and quality improvement.
  • Positive opinion about eHealth influence on health care availability, especially in the remote areas of the region.


Summary

  • There is an acceptance for the eHealth idea, possible fear concerns security of data and also application of the latest informatical technology solutions.
  • There is a lack of sufficient knowledge about eHealth and according to that there is a need of dissemination of this knowledge to a wider range of people.
  • In according to the development of eHealth, people expect better quality and availability of health care (especially in the remote areas). There are also expectations concerning improvement of medical information exchange which up to know is rated as insufficient.
  • Majority of people expects the development of eHealth (especially on the international level). They are positive almost all health care providers should be connected through the eHealth network in the near future.
  • The respondents lean towards conclusion that the implementation of telemedicine will have a great impact on the cost-effectiveness of health care.

Sweden

by Lars Sjöberg

Group A: Doctors and nurses

  • Over 80% of the personnel in the health care in Region Skane have been in contact with one or more eHealth solutions and a vast majority can also see advantages with eHealth such as better and faster information, reduced costs, better quality of care and better organized archives.
  • Almost a third of the doctors and nurses however did not think that the costs for eHealth could be motivated by the saving potential.
  • The biggest problems with eHealth are, according to the doctors and nurses;  lack of knowledge about eHealth, security and lack of standardisation. Only about 2/3 thinks that the security risks are small and acceptable but about 25% think that eHealth means a bigger risk for sensible information than handling papers.
  • All together the survey shows a quite positive view on eHealth.
  • A majority of the doctors and nurses think that eHealth can contribute to a better and faster exchange of information, faster and more secure diagnostic and treatment, reduction of unnecessary laboratory tests and higher efficiency in acute situations.
  • Another positive belief is that eHealth probably or absolutely can improve the availability of health care especially in rural areas. More than 75 of the respondents think that so is the case and there are almost the same number of doctors and nurses who think that there could be advantages for the travelling patient in developing international eHealth networks.

Group C: Patients and public

  • Although only a few of the patients had heard of eHealth before, the acceptance is quite good. Less than 10% have what you can say a negative or low acceptance of eHealth.
  • Since most patients – about 80% – are Internet users and most patients also have been in contact with IT-solutions in the health care in Sweden (medical records etc) it is probably the word eHealth that is unknown and not the phenomena in itself.
  • Only a few patients (5%) express negative expectations about the development of transnational eHealth.
  • Among the negative expectations about eHealth, the far biggest issue is the technology and the security, which is mentioned by as much as 25% of the respondents.
  • A majority of the patients think that eHealth networking will improve the availability of medical service and most of the patients answering, also think that Health can increase the access to health care in the remote (rural) areas of the region?
  • Altogether the Swedish patients have a quite positive attitude towards eHealth.

Finland

by Helli Kitinoya

Most of the respondents in all target groups were quite positive about eHealth. Especially they thought that it can optimise the flow of information. Doctors and nurses thought that eHealth can speed up the flow of information and in doing so reduce double investigations and unnecessary work. Online information can be reached at any time and at any place. That can improve the quality of care for example in acute situations. Most of the doctors and nurses (and most of the respondents in every target group) thought that eHealth can increase the availability of health care services especially in rural areas. There were still quite many doctors and nurses who said that they have not heard about eHealth before – but many of them had used at least one application of it (in most cases electronic patient record).

According to doctors and nurses the biggest problem of eHealth was the lack of standardisation, integration and knowledge about it. They were also aware of the threats it can cause to data security, but most of them thought that the threat was small and acceptable. Some believed that cost-investments for eHealth justifies with its savings potential especially for a long time. In open-ended questions some of the respondents mentioned that to develop eHealth there must also be resources allocated to it. Many thought that regional and national information systems must be prioritised.

Most of the decision makers who participated in the study knew eHealth quite well. Every one of them thought that eHealth is important factor in their organisation and most of them wanted to allocate more resources in it. Most of them thought that eHealth can increase the access to health care particularly in rural areas. They also thought that eHealth networking is quite important for exchanging experiences transnationally in different fields of medicine. Decision makers also thought that eHealth can improve the flow of information in health care. Like doctors and nurses, decision makers were concerned about the lack of resources, standardisation and integration. Many of them thought that the development of regional and national information systems has to be prioritised. This was quite common view in all target groups.

Representatives of the public were also quite positive about eHealth – regardless of the fact that most of the respondents did not use internet at all, and had not heard about eHealth before. Most of their expectations about eHealth concerned the rapid supply of health care and availability of health services after duty hours. There were some doubts about eHealth in general and specifically about data security.

Most of the respondents did not believe that eHealth can provide equal opportunity for health care service for people of the countries around. They were more optimistic about eHealth increasing the access to health care especially in rural areas of the region. Re-spondents also thought that eHealth can improve the flow of information and in that way improve the quality and availability of health care. Doubts about eHealth concerned following things: data security, lack of human contact in care, availability and knowledge about eHealth especially among elderly people.

Most of the respondents in all target groups thought that development of eHealth in Fin-land is a matter of the next three of five years. There were more questions about transna-tional development of eHealth – most of the respondents expected no changes in that sector. Still many were aware of the increased mobility of people and the need to move online information effectively and rapidly.