What are the top health IT priorities in Europe? Not so different from the U.S.

Hospital IT executives in Europe share many of the same priorities and face many similar challenges as CIOs in other regions of the globe, including the United States, according to the HIMSS Analytics Annual European eHealth Survey 2018 released on Wednesday. Among them: empowering patients, sharing health information, protecting sensitive data and managing the growing need for a deeper talent pool. Healthcare entities around the globe are all facing what is essentially the same set of opportunities and challenges in digital transformation. Whether you call it patient experience, engagement or empowerment, HIMSS Analytics found that consumers owning and managing their own data, whether in apps or wearables, is a high priority among the 571 health information and technology professionals who participated in the survey.