Registry for Medical Devices: An e-Health Infrastructure for Needs Assessment, Procurement and Management of Medical Devices

Through the past two decades numerous efforts were undertaken towards a digital convergence in the Greek National Healthcare system. E-Health in Greece was initially perceived and developed locally (per healthcare institution) without accrediting the capability of digital technology. This together with the lack of a unified coding and classification system for medical devices not only created system interoperability failures, but also procurement, financial and BIT management issues. Registry of medical devices is a web based application, which has been developed by the National Evaluation Center of Quality & Technology in Health to fill the existing gap and is continuously updated during the last five years in close collaboration with medical device's market and healthcare professionals. Today the Registry is in a mature phase and ready for widespread use. By this way, it is possible to conduct electronic auctions widely, gained complete and accurate picture of the types, quantities and prices of products and mainly made possible the real needs assessment and early planning