In contrast to other ICT application domains, where consumer demand has driven a convergence on standardized interfaces and platforms, health care providers have not -so far- collectively demanded a consistent means of interoperability. As a result, hospitals often experience vendor lock-in when purchasing proprietary and closed communication systems and medical devices and equipment.
As a starting point health care organizations should
Leveraging open procurement specifications in health care remains an important yet underused approach to drive health care integration, quality improvement, and cost containment. Over the last few years, public procurement for innovation in health has revealed major and significant transformations. Building on intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth, the European 2020 strategy made public procurement more efficient in using public funds. New tools were introduced and guidance was issued by DG COMMERCE on procurement models supporting innovation. Pre-commercial procurement is a recommended approach for buying R&D services in a way that shares both the risk (cost) and the benefit (results). It enables public authorities to pay less for R&D services while leaving industry with sufficient rights to reuse the successful results in other projects. Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) on the other hand challenges industry from the demand side to develop innovative solutions for public sector needs and it provides a first customer reference that enables companies to create competitive advantage on the market. PCP enables public procurers to compare alternative potential solution approaches and filter out the best possible solutions that the market can deliver to address the public need.
Next chapter:
