ACM recommends Dutch health ministry: mandate opening up health-care information systems to promote innovation

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) recommends the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) to mandate suppliers of health care IT to open up their digital information systems, by default, in a secure manner for links with other suppliers and health care providers. The goal thereof is to promote innovation in health care IT, so that health care providers and patients benefit from reduced administrative costs as well as from higher-quality health care.

ACM sees openness of health-care information systems as a precondition for accelerating the transition to suitable care and for facing social challenges such as an ageing population and labor shortages. Since ACM at the moment has insufficient instruments to structurally mandate this, ACM recommends the Ministry of VWS to mandate opening up digital information systems through legislation.

IT market in the health-care sector is not functioning well

From its enforcement experience, ACM sees that IT markets in the health care sector are not functioning well. Many digital information systems are currently closed information systems. This means that other suppliers or health care providers that wish to develop software themselves are not able to develop or test new IT services, and that their information systems communicate suboptimally with each other. As a result, innovation and entry by new entrants are stalling. Health care providers consequently have less choice, and become dependent of an ever shrinking number of IT suppliers. At the same time, this leads to higher administrative costs for health care providers, and in health care of reduced quality for patients. In that context, the fundamental problem is the closed nature of information systems.

ACM’s recommendation: mandate opening up health-care information systems through legislation

ACM has already had its eye on IT markets in the health-care sector for quite some time now, due to reports that this market is not functioning well. However, ACM currently does not have the instruments to tackle the problem of closed information systems at a more structural level. That would be different if ACM had a so-called New Competition Tool, which is a tool that ACM has already argued in favor of with the Dutch legislature for a while now. That is why ACM recommends the Ministry of VWS to intervene through legislation. The Ministry of VWS can do so by using the Dutch Act on Electronic Data Exchange in Health Care (in Dutch: Wet elektronische gegevensuitwisseling in de zorg, or Wegiz). This law offers opportunities to impose sector-wide requirements on the openness of IT systems, within strict rules on information security. ACM explains its recommendation in the letter to the Ministry of VWS.

ACM and health care IT

Well-functioning IT markets in the health care sector are a necessary condition for a durable health-care information system. Open information systems of health care providers offer many opportunities for an effective and timely exchange of data, and for innovation. With such systems, health care providers and patients will have the right information in the right spot at the right time. That is needed for making the quality, accessibility and affordability of health care in the Netherlands ready for the future. ACM’s attention to IT in health care is part of ACM’s focus area The Digital Economy.