Electronic Patient Files (ePAs) to be Introduced in 2024
The Federal Ministry of Health in Germany plans to introduce electronic patient files (ePAs) for everyone who doesn’t opt-out in 2024. The move has raised concerns about data protection, but the ministry is taking steps to ensure the necessary security precautions are in place. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has described legitimate data protection concerns as being like gold. He acknowledges that any data protection errors could be costly.
ePA to Improve Patient Care
The ePA is a core element of the German healthcare system’s digitization strategy. The aim is to allow patients to be “masters of their data” for the first time. The ePA will also help to improve patient care. Many people underestimate the risk of “sudden serious illness”, and the ePA will allow doctors to access vital medical information promptly. The ePA will also provide patients with a way to track their medical history, reducing the risk of double examinations.
Sensitive Diagnoses to Be Managed Accordingly
In cases of sensitive diagnoses such as HIV or suicidal tendencies, doctors will need to ask patients if they want such information to be stored in their medical records. Fine-grained authorization management will allow patients to grant or deny specific read or write permissions for their medical records.
Health Data Utilization Act
The forthcoming Health Data Utilization Act will allow health insurance data, registry data, genome data, and data from studies such as Germany’s largest medical cohort study NAKO to be merged. Longitudinal studies will also be possible for pharmaceutical companies, who will need to fill out research applications to receive data.
Protecting Data Privacy
The ministry takes concerns about data privacy seriously. The right for insured persons to object to the ePA will be retained, and the feared disclosure of ePA data to law enforcement authorities will not be allowed. The ministry aims to work with experts to ensure that data protection and research can be reconciled.
Gematik GmbH Conversion
The conversion of Gematik GmbH, responsible for the digitization of the healthcare system, was done by mutual agreement. The statutory health insurance companies will continue to assume a significant part of the financing, around 93 percent.
