A new report has been published by the European Commission, entitled "Unlocking the ICT growth potential in Europe: Enabling people and businesses”. The report highlights the importance of unlocking ICT's growth potential in Europe now and calls for a strategic vision for Europe.
The study recognises the "tremendous scope" for gains from (digitally) transforming public sectors such as health care, not only in terms of better health care at lower costs, but also for economic growth, particularly in the current economic and demographic context.
The report identifies as relevant next trends the development in big data analytics, body technology, advanced materials and robotics.
However, it also recognises that there are some potential downside risks which may come from concerns about data ownership and use, privacy and security, attitudes of patients and professionals to new developments, and interoperability of systems.
It is important, concludes the study, to improve understanding of how greater adoption and integration of ICT in health can contribute to reducing health care expenditure and increase the sector’s performance, improving health outcomes and safety, job creation, and innovation in health care delivery.
The report is available here.
