HIMSS Analytics breaks into Europe

The president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has told E-Health Europe that HIMSS Analytics has finally moved into Europe.

After speculation in January that the non profit subsidiary of Chicago-based HIMSS would eventually provide services in Europe, the Middle East and Australia, Stephen Lieber, president of HIMSS, told EHE that they now have “several contracts with ministries in Europe.”

He said: “We are going in and doing adoption assessments to try to determine what stage European hospitals are at by creating comparative analysis between those institutions and others around the world.”

HIMSS Analytics already collects IT data on every non-federal hospital in the US and some hospitals in Canada through an annual study that tracks the implementation and adoption of electronic health records.

The EHR model rates hospitals on a scale of 0-7, with 7 being the highest level that can be reached. The assessment includes an on-site visit by HIMSS Analytics officials, at which they are able to look at the hospital IT systems in depth.

Lieber added: “Hospital administrators as well as government policy officials can make some determination about where they are as well as where they need to get to.

“We are starting to look at doing more in Europe around the HIMSS analytics concept, which is to assess where things are and then do some analysis and some consulting around those findings to help people figure out where to go next.”

According to Lieber, HIMSS analytics is already working in Denmark and Finland at a national level and on a more hospital specific basis in the Netherlands.

Lieber added: “The idea is recognising that there is commonality, it’s not country specific, but there is commonality in terms of IT adoption and the progression you go through in terms of IT.

“Analytics also gives you the value of cross border comparison. You can get a sense of what others are doing and there are lessons to be learned from that-things to do and things not to do and hopefully you mistakes aren’t repeated.”