Strong growth projected in French health ICT

A new analysis of the French health ICT market published by Frost and Sullivan argues that an increased emphasis on patient safety will provide the drive for new ICT investments, particularly for clinical systems.

The report says that the increasing use of ICT in the healthcare sector is anticipated to help avoid medical errors, improve decision making processes, and reduce the duration of treatment and hospitalisation, helping to ensure high quality patient care.

It projects that the total French health ICT market will grow from the present annual spend of $726m to $1,034m by 2008, an increase of 30%.

According to Frost and Sullivan there is a significant shift from administrative systems to clinical solutions such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications Systems), order entry systems and electronic medical records (EMRs) to improve health service delivery.

"These systems prevent wasteful duplication of costly investigations, treatments and drug prescriptions, apart from preventing adverse events which may prolong the length of stay in hospitals and thereby increase costs," said Siddarth Saha, Frost and Sullivan’s health IT programme manager.

Identifying specific market growth opportunities the report highlights wider adoption of EMR systems. "The French healthcare IT industry offers good potential for EMR systems both for hospitals and primary care, as well as for an intelligent order entry system that allows for the monitoring of resources used during patient care," said Saha.

In addition, a new demand for legacy systems is forecast, including patient administration systems, primary care health records systems, PACS and radiology information systems.

The report also states there is likely to be increased emphasis on integrated solutions "linking primary care centres, hospitals and patients through smart technologies".

The report states that a key driver in the French market has been the introduction of the new activity-based funding system since 2004, which is leading hospitals to optimise their patient information systems to ensure they accurately record patient activity and subsequently get paid.

"While IT applications are proving to be beneficial, obtaining government buy-in into an integrated healthcare IT network plan and assuring justifiable returns on healthcare IT investments are proving to be difficult," states the report. The budget deficits faced by the French healthcare system are also proving a major barrier to the adoption of an integrated national IT health plan.

The Frost and Sullivan market report also argues that by following the European procurement regulations – including placing tenders larger tenders in the Official Journal of the European Union – results in "the slow implementation of IT applications".

Identifying other barriers to speeding up adoption of IT systems in the French healthcare system the report states: "There exists a clear need for implementing healthcare IT standards, as they will stimulate competition and reduce costs, permitting healthcare institutions to establish low-entry systems and gradually build up large scale IT solutions."

The report characterises the French market as both fragmented and competitive, and suggests that to succeed within it firms should develop partnerships or joint ventures with companies in niche segments.

In a 2005 report, market analysis firm IDC, forecast that that total IT spending in the Western European healthcare sector would grow from $7bn (£3.9bn) in 2004 to $10bn (£5.6bn) in 2009.