Austria: E-Health without doctors?

Austria’s healthcare system is the second largest amongst the German speaking countries, employing 210,000 doctors and nurses across private practices and 264 hospitals.

According to OECD data, healthcare spending in Austria was €25.1 bn in 2005 (10.3% of the GDP). Two thirds of this sum was paid for by the Austrian “Sozialversicherung”, a public insurance covering 98% of the Austrian population.

When it comes to e-Health, the state plays a very active role in Austria and the country has completed the roll-out of its E-Card, a smartcard for the health system.

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Health IT in Austria Like other Western countries, Austria has been working to modernise its health system by implementing IT solutions for many years and, like other countries, these solutions are often highly fragmented and generally not compatible with each other. The Austrian e-Health strategy After the roll-out of the Austrian E-Card in 2005, politicians and decision makers in the social security system have been quick to develop the next stage of their ir e-Health strategy.