Italy: expenditure in digital healthcare 2011-2018

Between 2011 and 2018 the expenditure on digital health fluctuated in Italy. However, from 2016 onwards, it steadily increased. In 2018, the spending on e-health peaked at 1.39 billion euros. Digital health is an expression meant to define all the applications of information and communication technology in the health sector. eHealth expenditure is expected to gradually grow until 2020 in Italy.

Comparison with eHealth revenues in other European countries

In 2018, the estimated eHealth revenues reached 328.4 million U.S. dollars in Italy . In detail, Italy was the fourth European country with the highest revenues coming from eHealth. First, second and third in the ranking were Germany, France and United Kingdom with 652.1, 470.6 and 430.1 million U.S. dollars, respectively.

Barriers to digital innovation in the health sector

According to Italian healthcare managers, the fields that in the short term will have the greatest impact on digital healthcare are big data analytics applied to precision medicine and robotics. Also, healthcare managers considered limited availability of economic resources and low level of digital education as the main barriers to digital innovation in this sector.