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Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference 2006:
Major eHealth initiative in China
Jie Chen reported this during the annual telemedicine and eHealth conference in Tromsø. She is the director of the Key Lab of Health Technology Assessment at Fudan University and has been involved in China's eHealth development in China from the start in 1995.
Rapid development
Dr. Jie Chen describes a public health service which is developing rapidly, with a strong focus on the implementation of information systems in hospitals, a national information network and public health network with information about diseases, epidemics, medicine and treatment. The strategy also includes the development and implementation of telemedicine, health records, Web pages and standardization.
China has the fastest growing economic development in the world. During the past 5 years, expenditures on health and care have amounted to some 5.5 % of the gross national product.
1.3 billion Chinese people
Today, the country has a population of 1.3 billion. There are about 300,000 health care institutions, but access to the health service is very poor for the many people who live in remote regions. This implies that not everybody receives the services they need or that the quality of the services they receive is too low.
-"Our health authorities are committed to eHealth as an important initiative in a long-term strategy to improve the availability and quality of the health service. The investments in eHealth started in the 1990s, and came to about NOK 5 billion in 2005. According to our eHealth development strategy 2003 - 2010' the economic investment is to increase every year, and by 2010 we will be spending NOK 10 billion for this purpose, says Jie Chen.
Ambitious
China's ambitious plan requires a great deal to be done in a short period under stringent control by the central authorities. However, the plan is not based only on wishful thinking. It includes clear objectives and principles, and the challenges around the development and implementation of eHealth are clear.
-"Nevertheless, the will of the Chinese health authorities to introduce eHealth is not strong enough, as this requires changes in organizations as well as new skills. There is no clear organizational structure for health information today, and there is a great shortage of specialists in medical information technology. A further barrier to development is the lack of standards and legislation," she says.
Despite this, she is confident that China's eHealth plan will be implemented as planned.
Figure: According to China's "eHealth development strategy 2003 - 2010" economic investment in eHealth is to increase every year, and by 2010 we will be spending NOK 10 billion per year for this purpose, says Jie Chen from Fudan University in China.
Photo: Jarl-Stian Olsen
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