The Turkish Ministry of Health and HIMSS Europe have embarked on a five-year collaboration aimed at driving increased digitization of health records in hospitals across Turkey.

HIMSS will measure the state of IT deployment at Turkish hospitals, in comparison with international standards, using its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, officials say, with an eye toward expanding the scope of the system to encompass public hospitals throughout the country.

In Europe, as of May 2013, there are 26 hospitals with Stage 6, and just two with Stage 7 accreditation on the EMRAM scale, which was developed by HIMSS Analytics and gauges hospitals readiness on a scale of 0 to 7. In Turkey, Ankara Gazi Mustafa Kemal Public Hospital piloted the use of the system and has Stage 6 accreditation.

"We have decided to use HIMSS EMRAM scoring system to ensure all public hospitals to keep up with the latest medical innovations and international quality standards as well as enabling integrated paperless hospitals with the concept of digitalization as required also by our strategic objectives," said Prof. Ali Ihsan Dokucu, MD, chairman of the Turkey Public Hospitals Agency, in a press statement.

He added that the collaboration with HIMSS will help offer Turkish hospitals "a roadmap for their future" with regard to health information technology.

"We have started this project with HIMSS Analytics to support and have a standard for this transformation through classification and certification activities," said Hakki Ozturk, MD, head of healthcare information systems department at Turkish Ministry of Health. "Our goal is to assess and complete certification of all our hospitals using 'digital hospital classification system' by the end of 2015, which is well ahead of the timing defined in Turkish Ministry of Health Strategic Plan"

"By conducting data collection from all public Turkish hospitals and using the HIMSS EMRAM model as a guideline to implement IT in hospitals, then the Turkish Ministry of Health are on a fast track to success and HIMSS is thrilled to be supporting the Ministry in its mission," said H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of HIMSS Worldwide, in a press statement. "We look forward to sharing the results of the data collection and best practices from around the world, at the upcoming HIMSS Turkey conference in May 2014, in Istanbul."

[See also: European Commission planning to give patients secure access to digital health records by 2015]