"The US healthcare market is an amorphous system, while in Europe every country and region has its own unique setbacks and challenges."

Healthcare IT News Europe is based in the US but works with European correspondents. What are the main differences in healthcare IT in Europe and the US?

The US healthcare market is an amorphous system, while in Europe every country and region has its own unique setbacks and challenges. In the Netherlands and in Scandinavia, healthcare IT is very advanced and these countries are far ahead in the implementation of the electronic medical record, while many providers in the US are still at the introductory stage. One of the biggest differences between the two market regions is the emphasis on costs. In the US system, everything is shouldered by providers and insurance plans, while in the Scandinavian countries, for example, healthcare IT spending mainly comes from the government. At Healthcare IT News Europe, we closely follow the telehealth stories in many European countries and we observe several national and cross-border initiatives.

How can vendors communicate with your readers? Can they submit stories to your publication?

We sometimes receive mails from vendors or providers about projects which have long been completed. But we are an online news service and we encourage our readers to send us information on any developments that are new. We welcome press releases but we also generate a lot of interest for our guest columnists. In the last few months, we have published approximately 20 guest columns, written by vendors and providers. We do not like to see vendors make a sales pitch here but if they can elaborate on the challenges of IT implementations at a radiology department, we will be happy to use the article as content on both our website and in our weekly e-newsletter.

Your online magazine was launched in late 2006. How has it developed and what are your future plans?

We inaugurated the website in August 2006 and our newsletter, Healthcare IT NewsWeek EU, was first publishing in March of 2007. The first subscribers came from our partnerships with HIMSS EMEA and the International Hospital Federation. Since then the magazine’s subscriptions have taken off and we are now focusing on broadening our reach across Europe. We currently work with freelancers in Germany and France, who research news topics in their own languages and report all original stories in English. As a next step, we intend to employ writers in Spain and Italy and, in future, Healthcare IT News Europe aims to cover the entire EMEA region.(AG)

Contact Chip Means at chip.means@medtechpublishing.com