EP Seminar on Hospital Choice Web Information

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Hospital information portals will be essential to deliver outcome to the cross-border healthcare reform. That was one of the conclusions when HCP today arranged a seminar in the EP, presenting the study "How to find the best hospital?". This study looks into the design and content of major portals in UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The study was presented by Helena Cordasev and Johan Hjertqvist from the HCP Brussels office in front of an engaged audience.

The seminar host, MEP Olle Schmidt (ALDE), stressed the need for user-friendly information of treatment options in all member states a condition for integration of European healthcare. Ilias Iakovidis, with the DG InfSo ICT unit, advocated a rapid movement into personalized guide solutions, with public benchmarking of not only clinics but of doctors and operation teams as well, to powerfully drive the quality improvement. Such services are under way, promised Sebastian Schmidt-Kaehler at the portal Weisse Liste in Germany. This portal aims to become a full-service system interacting with all German hospitals and GP's - though far from all providers measured by the Weisse Liste appreciate the publicity. Henk Van daele from the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) looked for the individual touch to the Internet information being of high importance and pointed to already existing quality requirements assuring good safety standard, though today generally un-known to the public.

HCP will follow up on the implementation of the cross-border care directive, contributing to analysis and debate how to ensure that the new regulation also in practice will facilitate healthcare mobility. HCP will further early next year present a study on better user information of medicines, to reflect the new legislation in this field and the need for empowering information of pharmaceuticals.

Read the "How to find the best hospital?" report at www.healthpowerhouse.com and comment on the report at the HCP blog http://blog.healthpowerhouse.com/ and Facebook!

Let us hear your voice! Will the informed patients’ choice drive hospitals towards better quality? Can open benchmarks increase competition between care providers and improve performance?

For a video of Helena Cordasev's presentation click here.