Benchmarking Deployment of Ehealth Among General Practitioners

DG CONNECT commissioned RAND Europe, Open Evidence and BDI Research to undertake the third eHealth benchmarking study, which measured the availability and use of eHealth by general practitioners (GPs) in 27 EU member states, and compared the results to those of the second eHealth benchmarking study (2013). A random sample of 5,793 GPs was surveyed, and univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were conducted to analyse the collected data. The analyses showed that, overall, eHealth adoption in primary healthcare in the 27 EU member states has increased from 2013 to 2018, but that there are differences among the countries surveyed. In countries with the highest level of adoption (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), the use of eHealth is routine among GPs, while in countries with the lowest level of adoption (Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovakia), eHealth is currently not widespread. Electronic health records are widely available across all countries; health information exchange adoption is lower than electronic health record adoption; Telehealth adoption shows progress, but its availability and use are still low in most countries; and personal health record adoption is, overall, low.