Digital storage for health data such as findings and medication is expected to go into mass use in 2025. How well does the technical implementation work?
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is counting on rapid positive effects through the launch of electronic patient records (ePA) for all insured persons at the beginning of next year. The ePA will lead to better and less bureaucratic care, said the SPD politician in Berlin at the start of an information campaign. The general practitioners’ association warned that the e-file must be technically stable. Lauterbach made it clear that the practices’ software systems should work quickly with the ePA in the future.
According to a law from the traffic light coalition, all insured people will have an ePA created by their health insurance company at the beginning of 2025 – unless they reject it. It is intended to be a digital storage device for information on medications, findings and laboratory values and to accompany patients throughout their lives. The e-file is scheduled to start on January 15, 2025, initially in two model regions in Franconia and Hamburg. It is expected to be available to patients, practices, clinics and pharmacies nationwide four weeks later. E-files were already introduced in 2021 as an optional offer that you have to take care of yourself. However, they have hardly been used so far.
Source: Stern
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