New Zealand and Slovenia used the Global eHealth Forum in Hamburg (October 25/26, 2010) to present themselves as innovative eHealth markets. As early as 1998, Slovenia introduced an electronic health insurance card. Over the last three years, the country has modernized the system to include online access. The card now functions as a key for accessing data, rather than carrying information itself. The Slovenian health IT system processes over 1 million transactions every day, making it one of the biggest systems in the country.

“This infrastructure is the basis for future services. Future steps will give insured persons secure access to the data stored by insurance companies. We are planning the progressive introduction of the electronic prescription and electronic referral,“ said Samo Fakin, General Director of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia. “The most important aspect is that politicians have clearly decided that we want to have eHealth. Everything else is easy.“

Presenting New Zealand’s approach to eHealth, Dr. David Galler, Board Member of the NZ Commission for Quality and Safety in Healthcare, said that his country regarded health IT as critical for a high-value health system. Health IT architects in New Zealand are not performing miracles – they are simply deploying the full arsenal of tools available efficiently and effectively. It is the attitude that makes all the difference, said Galler.

“We have a can-do attitude that has led to a health information ecosystem which is the envy of the entire world. With the current pragmatic and openly welcomed health reforms, our already well-performing system will achieve even better health outcomes. eHealth solutions will play a significant role in supporting and enabling this future,“ he said.

New Zealand’s mainly publicly funded system performs better than other OECD nations in terms of both treatment outcomes and cost effectiveness. New Zealand has a population of 4.4 million, compared with Slovenia’s population of 2 million.

”Things are a lot easier in smaller countries, because we are very close to all parties involved,“ concluded Fakin. Given the fact that even undertakers will have to use Slovenia’s national health IT system in order to be reimbursed, this is a key aspect in garnering positive public opinion for such a major undertaking.

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Source: HealthTech Wire for the Global eHealth Forum.

This is a HealthTech Wire original text. You are free to use it, in full whole or in part, for journalistic purposes, provided the source is acknowledged.

© 2010, so2say communications