2007

iSOFT reports successful start of electronic health cards

The first 10,000 new chip cards have been issued to members of statutory health insurance plans in Löbau-Zittau (www.saxmedicard.de) and in Flensburg, the second test region.

According to a current study* by iSOFT Deutschland, digitalisation of the healthcare system ("eHealth") could save up to EUR 25 billion each year.

For these savings to be achieved, however, the introduction of electronic chip cards containing health insurance information would have to be mandatory for the 123,000 physicians in private practice in Germany as well as 65,000 dentists, 21,000 pharmacies, 2,200 hospitals, 270 health insurance funds, and for all 80 million people insured under both statutory and private insurance plans.

Peter Herrmann, CEO of iSOFT Deutschland, believes that the gradual creation of an electronic chip card infrastructure in Germany “makes sense as long as we do not lose sight of the goal of electronically linking all participants". He said: "Digital information must be a fixed component of the medical treatment chain.”

Initially, the German electronic health insurance card will only contain billing data and a brief medical history. It will not be possible for doctors' practices or hospitals to enter prescriptions on the cards for pharmacies until the cards have been introduced nationwide. The next step will be to store all medication prescribed and, later, all emergency data such as blood type.

“These first preliminary steps are only intended primarily to help all participants become accustomed to the new cards and to establish the required card readers and software systems,” said Peter Herrmann. “The desired quantum leap on the cost side will not occur until subsequent coupling of the chip cards with the electronic patient histories, which will mark the end of the development stage."

The electronic insurance cards will merely represent the key to this data, enabling doctors and pharmacists to access any patient history regardless of the doctor's practice or hospital from which the data originated.

“Not until access to all relevant treatment data is enabled will it be possible to avoid costly repeat examinations,” said Herrmann. “It will be several years before today's paper system is completely replaced by the new electronic systems."

The current iSOFT study predicts that next year alone more than EUR 10 billion will be wasted in the German healthcare sector due to insufficient computer links.