EHR-Implement

Implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) at a national level constitutes a radical innovation for health care. Along with technical challenges, EHR implementations face several political, social and organizational issues which are often overlooked. Acknowledging that EHR success needs to engage all stakeholders, manage organizational changes and alleviate resistance, the EHR-IMPLEMENT project aims to examine political, social and organizational factors influencing large scale EHR implementations, and to identify best practices.

Objectives of the project

The objectives of the EHR-IMPLEMENT  project are to collect, analyze and compare national initiatives of broad scale electronic health record (EHR) implementations among European countries focusing on socio-organisational issues and to provide best practice, policy and strategic recommendations to facilitate EHR implementation throughout Europe.
It will contribute to build a Network for European eHealth research & practice.

The project will achieve its objectives by :
Analysing selected national policies, strategies and initiatives for broad scale EHR implementation taking into account cultural and organizational diversities of health systems in six European Member States (Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Slovenia and United Kingdom).
Carrying out a survey of national policy and action plans for broad scale EHR implementation across European Member States
Identifying  the best practices towards broad scale EHR implementations in European countries
Raising the awareness of decision and policy makers  regarding socio-cultural and organizational issues of broad scale EHR implementation.
Supporting the creation of a multidisciplinary community of scientific experts, technical personnel and National Health System representatives to promote information sharing and mutual learning
Disseminating the results of the project and the recommendations among stakeholders of the European area: policy makers, national health authorities, health care organisations, health professionals, citizens and patients, scientific and technical communities, industrialists…

Methods

Through a case study approach, the project will perform an in-depth comparison and assessment of six national initiatives  for broad scale EHR implementation, and will conduct a focused survey on strategy and actions on European level.
Overall, the EHR-IMPLEMENT project will engage with high level scientific experts and national authorities in knowledge exchanges, and will formulate recommendations aimed at facilitating the wider implementation of EHRs in the European Member States and Associated States and assisting the European Union in achieving its eHealth objectives.

Reports and events

The EHR-Implement project will produce six national reports and one report on the result of the European survey. It will hold three European workshops and six national workshops.
The final report will compare the practices, and will formulate recommendations for European policy makers

Schedule

May 2007: Start of the project
October 2007 : First European workshop on the methodology for analysis and evaluation of the socio-organisational aspects of broad scale EHR implementation (for EHR-Implement participants and invited experts) - Heraklion, Greece
Mid-2008:  Second European workshop  on the presentation of the national reports (for EHR-Implement participants and invited experts) - Copenhagen, Denmark
End of 2008 : Release of the first draft of the six national reports
2009: Six national workshops - Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Slovenia and United Kingdom
End of 2009: Third European Workshop on the comparison of national initiatives and identification of best practices (for EHR-Implement participants and invited experts and stakeholders) - Paris, France
Mid-2010: Release of the results of the survey in European Union and release of the recommendations for policy makers