The health service is currently dependent upon good IT solutions in order to produce and deliver healthcare services. At the same time, the health service is undergoing enormous changes as a result of demanding challenges within the sector as a whole. Central trends are the new forms of organisation and governance, and the need to optimise resources and control costs, increase the quality and quantity of treatments, and increase the number of integrated healthcare systems in which the patient is truly the focus – not only in political speeches, but in the daily treatment that is offered.
That the sector, which is now undergoing such fundamental changes, will be able to create “the health service of the future” with the support of an unchanged supplier market for IT services is unthinkable. Just as the health service is changing, it will be necessary for the supplier market for central applications and solutions for the sector to change in accordance with needs. In brief, suppliers need to develop themselves in order to become the providers and suppliers that the sector needs in both the restructuring phase and in the future.
Today’s suppliers of applications and solutions have developed in response to a fragmented and divided health system. Customers have requested dedicated applications for dedicated purposes with extremely detailed requirement specifications. There has been scope for a few, relatively small and focused companies with few clients to develop within specialised niches within the overall courses of treatment.
In Europe, there has also been a tendency for the development of national suppliers who have focused on one country’s specific challenges. As a result of this, the European eHealth market is currently extremely fragmented and without what could be deemed a dominating supplier within the sector.
With the new objectives and consequent changes in the health service, enquiries are being made to suppliers regarding solutions that are more geared towards what the health service wishes to achieve, i.e. the achievement of direct value for the patient, rather than detailed requirement specifications based on the status quo. The challenges no longer only exist within one speciality in one department at one hospital, but within the entire value chain from when the patient becomes ill and visits his/her doctor until he/she has completed treatment and is transferred for follow-up by another entity than that which conducted the course of treatment, if necessary. That the supplier understand this process, and their ability to deliver value within such a process, is highly important.
A changed health system will result in new behaviour with regard to procurement and implementation. Customers will view the health system as a whole to a greater extent, and it will be expected that the suppliers do the same.
For the eHealth market, this will mean that all the existing small, effective solutions must also function well together in order to deliver integrated value for the patient and paying customer, and also ensure that the supplier is able to take responsibility for the realisation of this integration. This means that the supplier market must also be consolidated into fewer suppliers offering a larger range of applications and services and greater integrated value for the customer.
holds a unique position in terms of being a central and leading participant in this consolidation, and consequently in the development of the supplier industry in our sector. has unique technological solutions that enable us to combine applications and solutions into an integrated whole within value chains, and to simultaneously maintain a component-oriented delivery model. Our dedicated culture, competence, experience and delivery capability are the basis for executing such a consolidation.
’s strategy and vision to deliver integrated eHealth solutions to the entire health service value chain corresponds to how the market is developing.
Our Connected Healthcare technology is a suitable consolidation platform upon which applications and solutions can be combined into an integrated product solution for the customer. This technology enables , perhaps more quickly and efficiently than some other suppliers, to include new applications and solutions in the company’s product portfolio, and therefore capitalise on the fact that many small companies with specialist applications and niche solutions exist in the current market.
The consolidation of suppliers and solutions within the eHealth sector has begun. is not currently the largest participant in the field, but our origins and our technology may prove to be a more important catalyst than the market is currently aware of.
Alea jacta est.
Sverre Flatby
CEO
Health AS