Editing Health informatics (section)

===Europe===
{{further|European Federation for Medical Informatics}}

==== European Union ====
The European Commission's preference, as exemplified in the 5th Framework<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cordis.europa.eu/about/archives | title = Fifth Framework Programme (FP5: 1998-2002) | work = CORDIS | publisher = European Commission }}</ref> as well as currently pursued pilot projects,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.epsos.eu/ |title=European Patient Smart Open Services |access-date=2019-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150816054504/http://www.epsos.eu/ |archive-date=2015-08-16 }}</ref> is for Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) for health care.

The European Union's Member States are committed to sharing their best practices and experiences to create a European eHealth Area, thereby improving access to and quality health care at the same time as stimulating growth in a promising new industrial sector. The European eHealth Action Plan plays a fundamental role in the European Union's strategy. Work on this initiative involves a collaborative approach among several parts of the Commission services.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/policy_action_plan/index_en.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110319023217/http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/policy/index_en.htm | archive-date = 19 March 2011 | title = European eHealth Action Plan | publisher = European Commission }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101206000055/http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm | archive-date = 6 December 2010 | title = European eHealth Action Plan i2010 | publisher = European Commission }}</ref> The [[European Institute for Health Records]] is involved in the promotion of high quality [[electronic health record]] systems in the [[European Union]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Electronic Health Records for Europe|year=2005|url=http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Telemedicine_Alliance/SEMWC7SMD6E_0.html|publisher=[[European Space Agency]]|access-date=2009-01-13}}</ref>

==== UK ====
The broad history of health informatics has been captured in the book ''UK Health Computing: Recollections and reflections'', Hayes G, Barnett D (Eds.), BCS (May 2008) by those active in the field, predominantly members of BCS Health and its constituent groups. The book describes the path taken as "early development of health informatics was unorganized and idiosyncratic". In the early 1950s, it was prompted by those involved in NHS finance and only in the early 1960s did solutions including those in pathology (1960), radiotherapy (1962), immunization (1963), and primary care (1968) emerge.  Many of these solutions, even in the early 1970s were developed in-house by pioneers in the field to meet their own requirements. In part, this was due to some areas of health services (for example the immunization and vaccination of children) still being provided by Local Authorities.

The coalition government has proposed broadly to return to the 2010 strategy Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS (July 2010); stating: "We will put patients at the heart of the NHS, through an [[information revolution]] and greater choice and control' with shared decision-making becoming the norm: "no decision about me without me' and patients having access to the information they want, to make choices about their care. They will have increased control over their own care records."{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

There are different models of health informatics delivery in each of the home countries (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) but some bodies like UKCHIP<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.ukchip.org/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180227025129/http://www.ukchip.org/ | archive-date = 27 February 2018 | title = UKCHIP }}</ref> (see below) operate for those 'in and for' all the home countries and beyond.

NHS informatics in England was contracted out to several vendors for national health informatics solutions under the National Programme for Information Technology [[NPfIT#Deliverables|(NPfIT)]] label in the early to mid-2000s, under the auspices of NHS Connecting for Health (part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre as of 1 April 2013). NPfIT originally divided the country into five regions, with strategic 'systems integration' contracts awarded to one of several Local Service Providers (LSP).

The various specific technical solutions were required to connect securely with the NHS 'Spine', a system designed to broker data between different systems and care settings. NPfIT fell significantly behind schedule and its scope and design were being revised in real time, exacerbated by media and political lambasting of the Programme's spend (past and projected) against the proposed budget. In 2010 a consultation was launched as part of the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government's White Paper "Liberating the NHS". This initiative provided little in the way of innovative thinking, primarily re-stating existing strategies within the proposed new context of the Coalition's vision for the NHS.
The degree of computerization in NHS secondary care was quite high before NPfIT, and the programme stagnated further development of the install base – the original NPfIT regional approach provided neither a single, nationwide solution nor local health community agility or autonomy to purchase systems, but instead tried to deal with a hinterland in the middle.

Almost all general practices in England and Wales are computerized under the GP Systems of Choice<ref>{{cite web | url = http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/gpsoc | title = GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC) | work = National Health Service | publisher = United Kingdom }}</ref> programme, and patients have relatively extensive computerized primary care clinical records. System choice is the responsibility of individual general practices and while there is no single, standardized GP system, it sets relatively rigid minimum standards of performance and functionality for vendors to adhere to. Interoperation between primary and secondary care systems is rather primitive. It is hoped that a focus on interworking (for interfacing and integration) standards will stimulate synergy between primary and secondary care in sharing necessary information to support the care of individuals.  Notable successes to date are in the electronic requesting and viewing of test results, and in some areas, GPs have access to digital x-ray images from secondary care systems.

In 2019 the GP Systems of Choice framework was replaced by the GP IT Futures framework, which is to be the main vehicle used by [[clinical commissioning group]]s to buy services for GPs.  This is intended to increase competition in an area that is dominated by  [[EMIS Health|EMIS]] and [[The Phoenix Partnership|TPP]].  69 technology companies offering more than 300 solutions have been accepted on to the new framework.<ref>{{cite news |title=Number of primary care IT suppliers to quadruple |url=https://www.hsj.co.uk/technology-and-innovation/number-of-primary-care-it-suppliers-to-quadruple/7026180.article |access-date=1 December 2019 |work=Health Service Journal |date=22 October 2019}}</ref>

Wales has a dedicated Health Informatics function that supports NHS Wales in leading on the new integrated digital information services and promoting Health Informatics as a career.

The British Computer Society (BCS) <ref>{{cite web |title=British Computer Society |url=https://www.bcs.org |access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref> provides 4 different professional registration levels for Health and Care Informatics Professionals: Practitioner, Senior Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner, and Leading Practitioner. [[The Faculty of Clinical Informatics]] (FCI) <ref>{{cite web |title=Faculty of Clinical Informatics |url=https://facultyofclinicalinformatics.org.uk/what-is-the-fci |access-date=14 August 2022 |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814174418/https://facultyofclinicalinformatics.org.uk/what-is-the-fci |url-status=dead }}</ref> is the professional membership society for health and social care professionals in clinical informatics offering Fellowship, Membership and Associateship. BCS and FCI are member organizations of the Federation for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care (FedIP),<ref>{{cite web |title=Federation for Informatics Professionals |url=https://www.fedip.org |access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref> a collaboration between the leading professional bodies in health and care informatics supporting the development of the informatics professions.

[[The Faculty of Clinical Informatics]] has produced a Core Competency Framework that describes the wide range of skills needed by practitioners.<ref>{{cite web |title=Core Competency Framework Reports |url=https://facultyofclinicalinformatics.org.uk/ccf-reports |website=The Faculty of Clinical Informatics |access-date=19 September 2022 |archive-date=20 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920172708/https://facultyofclinicalinformatics.org.uk/ccf-reports |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==== Netherlands ====
In the Netherlands, health informatics is currently a priority for research and implementation. The Netherlands Federation of University medical centers (NFU)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nfu.nl/english/about-the-nfu/ | title=English &#124; About the NFU | access-date=2016-12-19 | archive-date=2023-03-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308130110/https://www.nfu.nl/english/about-the-nfu/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> has created the ''Citrienfonds'', which includes the programs eHealth and Registration at the Source.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nfu.nl/patientenzorg/citrien | title=Patiëntenzorg &#124; Citrienfonds | access-date=2016-12-19 | archive-date=2020-10-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005060437/https://www.nfu.nl/patientenzorg/citrien/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> The Netherlands also has the national organizations Society for Healthcare Informatics (VMBI)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.efmi.org/about/efmi-countries/netherlands |title = Netherlands|date = 2 October 2019}}</ref> and Nictiz, the national center for standardization and eHealth.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nictiz.nl/over-nictiz/english | title=English | access-date=2016-12-19 | archive-date=2017-09-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924160610/https://www.nictiz.nl/over-nictiz/english | url-status=dead }}</ref>