Download Small Reflexion on Standardization and E

Small Reflexion on Standardization and E-Health
Bruno Salgues, Melanie Blanchard
Institut Telecom, 46 rue Barrault, Paris 75013, France
[email protected]; [email protected]
As early as in 1999, Anita Rozenholc and Alain Veyret have had a premonitory vision. For
them, e-learning, e-health, e-culture, remote maintenance… are as many services which will
develop in the future and will hustle our ways of life. The debate on e-health was then
launched by technology promoters. From the beginning, this project concerns all together
engineers, managers, and industrialists.
Ten years later, numerous questions remain, the slow development of the e-health sector on
line is allotted by European experts to the weak development of standardization. The
communication "Com(2008) 689" of the European Commission describes the "telematics of
health" as a synthesis between medicine, computer science and communication. The
European Commission evaluates that the e-health market, which was of 4,7 billion euros in
2007, would reach 12 billion euros in 2012. In spite of great European programs, such as the
famous Lisbon plan launched in 2002, e-health, e-transport… education, health, culture and
maintenance remain the sectors the least ICT impacted. Research consortiums should thus
investigate these areas, in particular standardization aspects.
The first definition of “standard” is the representation of a statistical average. A thing is
regarded as normal if it is presented in an identical way for the majority of a population. The
standard comes from a frequency. In the second definition, the ideal standard plays a role of
attraction and conformity. The standard serves here or must be used as object of imitation, to
do or reproduce something, to delegate, it’s the description of a process. As the first normality
concerns the psychological aspect, only the second will be considered as it intervenes in
technological processes of production of goods and services which are associated, or in
organizations. We will constantly get back and forth between standards, associated goods and
organizations. Standard and activity of standardization will be considered as an integral part
of a knowledge industry. They are defined as activities involving experts, agents, machines
and users within organizations and/or dedicated, public and deprived communities. They thus
facilitate the collection, storage and production of knowledge bases (data bases, e-training,
online magazines, etc), and ease the production and transmission of knowledge (forums,
social networks, etc). In the field of health, standardizations are setting up. For examples, the
forum CONTINUA was created, the communication "Com(2008) 689" was published by the
European Commission and STANAG was edited by NATO, while a m-health Alliance,
devoted to e-health on line was elaborated.
Our first approach will consist in explaning the various types of standards and the visions they
carry. Later, we will address the role of standards in organizations and in particular their
influences on trades. Then, we will position standards in practices and other documents.
Lastly, we will wonder about practical aspects. In this context, standard will be the result of
the organisational evolution that is actually taking place or will happen in the future and
trades. It raises the question of actors’ mutation from participative to contributive modes and
adds interrogations on content coproduction, as it is not always a founder principle. Should
participative innovations pass by standardized data management and management by
projects?
Keywords: Standardization, NATO, Continua, Com-2008-689, e-health