| Workshop on Standardization in E-Health |
Geneva, 23-25 May 2003
Abstract
Economic Benefits of Standardization
Makoto Ishikawa
Associate Professor of Education
Faculty of Education, Kyoto University of Education
In the field of e-health, the foundation for standardization arises from compatibility of products and systems,
which are common to all industries exploiting so-called network externality. Various economic benefits
arise from standardization. Standardization brings both tangible and intangible benefits to manufacturers.
These are summarized as follows: (1) potential competitive advantage through standards; (2) cost reduction; (3)
improvements in the supplier/client relationship; (4) R&D activities, and (5) intellectual property through standards.
Businesses are motivated to participate in standardization for these reasons.
Standardization also brings benefits to users. Here the term "users" includes medical doctors, nurses, and
staff in medical institutions who use e-health products/systems. Benefits are summarized as follows: (1) price
reduction of products/systems; (2) selection of suppliers in the market; (3) the facilitation of training for the
operation of products/systems; (4) greater availability of complementary goods in the market. These benefits are
brought by standards and users are rather passive to standardization
Japanese Association of Healthcare Information System Industry (JAHIS) promotes the standardization of e-health
in Japan. Its major members are computer manufacturers, system integrators, and software houses, such as Toshiba
Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and NEC Corp. Until now JAHIS has developed nine models (JAHIS standard),
which the hospital information model and the elderly care model. These models are available in Japan. JAHIS also
participates in the Working Group of ISO/TC215 (Healthcare Informatics) as a Japanese representative, and it
contributes to the promotion of international standards.
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