E-health

The health-care sector represents an additional area of life which has become part of the sphere of influence of broadband Internet. Almost 72% of the specialists from public institutions surveyed assume to a high or very high degree that a large number of medical services will be supported by broadband Internet Internet applications by the year 2015.

Cost savings and improved patient care are both equally crucial factors in this trend. More than 65 % of the experts surveyed assume to a high or very high degree that e-health applications will make a considerable contribution to improved economy in the German health-care system. And more than 62% of the experts feel to a high or very high degree that e-health applications will most likely lead to an improvement in the level of patient care.

This growth in significance is also reflected in the market growth of the e-health sector (Fig. 37). Whereas the market volume was only EUR 200 million in 2004, by 2010 this figure is expected to surpass one billion, and by 2015 it is even projected to reach a market volume of EUR 2.3 billion.

Figure 37:		Market volume of e-health sector in Germany (experts from public institutions)11

But what are the exact advantages of deploying broadband Internet-based applications in the health-care sector? The experts are unanimous that e-health applications will benefit patients the most (Fig. 38). The strongest impact is expected to be on patient data. Over 85% of respondents agreed with the assertion that e-health applications will primarily improve the up-to-dateness, availability and transparency of patient data. A direct byproduct of this is the avoidance of redundant medication and examinations - an important issue in today's increasingly market-influenced health-care sector. Almost 85% of respondents agree to a high or very high degree that e-health applications will make a positive contribution in this area. The experts also expect e-health applications to make a considerable contribution to cutting administrative costs, with over 55% of them agreeing to a high or very high degree with this assertion.

Figure 38:		Positive aspects of e-health applications (experts from public institutions)

The positive impact of e-health applications is however relativized by factors that can considerably impede the deployment of these applications. The first negative factor involves the lack of compatibility between the conventional e-health systems deployed along the health-care chain (impedance of e-health applications according to around 65% of experts, agreeing to a high or very high degree with this assertion). Just under 60% moreover feel that reservations with respect to data security will have a negative impact on the deployment of e-health applications.

Some 50% of experts consider the absence of financial resources to represent an obstacle to a high or very high degree. One interesting aspect of these findings involves the acceptance of e-health applications. The lack of acceptance on the part of the health-care sector is much stronger than the lack of acceptance among patients: Around 53% of the experts agree to a high or very high degree with the assertion that this is an obstacle to the greater deployment of e-health applications, whereas only 37.5% of the experts feel that a lack of acceptance among patients represents an obstacle.

The impact of broadband Internet on the German health-care sector is obvious and considerable. But, like other economic sectors, it is no longer a purely domestic phenomenon. It, too, is part of a growing phenomenon of worldwide integration, raising the question of how Germany stacks up internationally in terms of its broadband Internet development. This question will be addressed in the following chapter.