Black Book Study Finds Europe is Connected, But Not Yet Interoperable: Only 13% of Healthcare IT Users Say Vendors are EHDS-Ready

LONDON, UK, June 16, 2026 (Newswire.com) - Black Book Market Research today announced the availability of its new report, "2026 Europe Health Information System Interoperability, Connectivity & Connected Care Top Performers," available today to European healthcare IT stakeholders at https://blackbookmarketresearch.com/european-ehr-epr-interoperability-and-connected-care-top-performers-2026

The report follows the recent Brussels EHDS interoperability meeting, where European health data leaders, EHR/EPR vendors, standards organizations, technical implementers and national digital health stakeholders advanced practical discussion around the European Health Data Space, cross-border exchange, the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format, patient summaries, ePrescriptions, imaging, laboratory results and hospital discharge reports.

Black Book's ongoing European healthcare IT user survey adds a market-performance lens to that policy and standards work. Based on 1,756 European healthcare IT, EHR/EPR, informatics, clinical, data, compliance and executive respondents, the report identifies which countries and vendors are demonstrating the strongest real-world readiness for EHDS mandates - and where connectivity remains more aspirational than operational.

Black Book found that 72% of respondents report their EHR/EPR can connect to external systems in at least one major workflow. However, only 24% describe their platform as capable of structured, reusable, workflow-embedded interoperability. Only 19% say their vendor has provided a credible, product-specific EHDS readiness plan, and just 13% rate their primary vendor as well prepared for true interoperability and EHDS-aligned exchange.

"Brussels showed that Europe has the policy urgency, technical talent and standards community to make EHDS real. Black Book's data shows where that readiness is actually taking hold and where the market still has work to do," said Douglas Brown, Founder of Black Book Research. "The most important distinction now is between systems that are merely connected and systems that are truly interoperable. More interfaces, more installations and broader brand visibility do not automatically mean that health data is clinically usable, portable, auditable or trusted across borders."

Black Book's Europe-wide vendor leaders include InterSystems HealthShare/TrakCare for interoperability, Tietoevry Lifecare/Data Platform for EHDS readiness, Cambio COSMIC for connected care, System C CareFlow for clinical usability, CompuGroup Medical for data and learning health systems, Systematic Columna CIS for resilience and trust, and Better openEHR Platform as a leading market challenger.

Country-level results show the strongest EHDS readiness among leading vendors in Finland with Tietoevry Lifecare; the United Kingdom with System C CareFlow; Austria with InterSystems HealthShare; Estonia with Nortal HIS/EHIS; Germany with CompuGroup Medical CGM CLINICAL; France with Softway Medical HM; Slovenia with Better openEHR; and the Netherlands also with Better openEHR.

"These countries are not simply showing digital maturity; they are showing more credible evidence of structured exchange, national or regional alignment, workflow usability and vendor readiness for mandated European health data movement," Brown added. "That matters because EHDS will increasingly test what works in production, not what is promised in procurement language."

The Black Book report also identifies country markets where readiness remains earlier-stage or more dependent on local infrastructure, custom interfaces, national middleware, implementation services or customer-funded integration work. Lower-readiness leading-country scores include Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Black Book emphasizes that lower scores do not indicate the absence of interoperability. Rather, they signal that leading platforms in those markets have not yet demonstrated the same level of scalable, structured and EHDS-aligned exchange reported in higher-readiness countries.

The survey also highlights the gap between readiness language and implementation evidence. Only 18% of respondents believe their vendor could support Patient Summary and ePrescription/eDispensation exchange without major customization. Only 9% believe their vendor has a credible path for imaging, laboratory and hospital-discharge exchange at EHDS scale. Across evaluated deployments, only 8% reached Black Book's highest maturity level for EHDS-credible and Europe-scalable interoperability.

The Brussels meeting advanced alignment around standards, testing and implementation priorities, but Black Book's findings indicate that the market still lacks a consistent buyer-facing view of which vendors are ready now, which countries can scale readiness, and which interoperability claims are supported by user experience. The report is designed to help close that evidence gap for healthcare providers, ministries, regional health authorities, investors, vendors and procurement leaders.

"The next phase of EHDS will be practical, not promotional," Brown said. "Healthcare buyers should require proof of structured data exchange, terminology governance, audit logging, patient and professional access, portability, secondary-use readiness and a product-specific EHDS roadmap before renewal, expansion or replacement. Interfaces may open a door, but interoperability determines whether care teams can actually use the data on the other side."

The 2026 Europe Health Information System Interoperability, Connectivity & Connected Care Top Performers report and 35 other global healthcare IT research reports for 2026 are available to download by qualified European healthcare IT buyers, provider organizations, public-sector stakeholders, investors, media analysts and vendors at www.blackbookmarketresearch.com.

About Black Book Research

Black Book Research is an independent, vendor-agnostic healthcare IT research and performance-measurement organization. Its 2026 European interoperability and EHDS readiness results are based on crowdsourced survey feedback from actual healthcare IT users, informatics leaders, clinical technology executives, data exchange professionals and implementation stakeholders across the countries reviewed. No vendor paid to be ranked, reviewed, included or elevated, and the research is free of vendor influence, data-subscription arrangements, event sponsorships, conference underwriting or vendor-controlled scoring.

Black Book's rankings compare vendor marketing claims against real-world user evidence of true interoperability, usable data exchange, structured connectivity, workflow integration, auditability, portability and EHDS mandate readiness. The findings make clear that more interfaces, higher installation counts and broader market visibility do not automatically equal stronger interoperability. The result is a country-specific, user-driven view of where health data exchange is actually working, where EHDS readiness is credible and where additional execution is still required.

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SOURCE: Black Book Research

Source: Black Book Research