CHERRY - Data handling

Data handling on the electronic Health Card

A) Medication documentation
With the consent of the patient, all prescribed medication can be saved on the electronic Health Card by the patient's doctor. This helps to prevent double prescriptions and any possible reciprocal effects with other medication. These measures result in a significant improvement in quality of treatment, as certain combinations of medication can damage the health of the patient and can even lead to death. When the reading and saving of data has been authorized by the patient, the medication documentation on the electronic Health Card offers improved protection against undesired medication effects. The doctor can compare the recommended medication with the medication previously prescribed to the patient. An electronic prescription support system can also be used, which points out known reciprocal effects and other forms of incompatibility. To ensure protection of patient data, access to the medication documentation takes place via the dual-code principle. Even when purchasing prescription-free medication, the medication documentation can provide the chemist with valuable information to identify possible medication risks.

B) Emergency data
n the case of emergency, whether after a road accident, sports injury, accident at work, or in the event of a heart attack or stroke, it is essential that the doctor is able to make the correct diagnosis within the shortest possible time and apply suitable treatment immediately. This is often a real challenge, as the emergency doctor if not familiar with the patient. With the emergency data saved on the electronic Health Card, emergency doctors and authorized medical personnel in hospitals or emergency medical services receive an overview of important medical data such as underlying diseases or allergies of the patient. Information which could save lives in an emergency. Information regarding previous operations, vaccinations or medication allergies saved on the electronic Health Card can also include important contact data for people who should be informed in the event of an emergency, or instructions regarding a living will or organ donation declaration. And once again, the insurant decides which medical data is saved on the electronic Health Card. All the data saved on the electronic Health Card can be viewed, printed out and, of course, deleted by the patient at any time. In the same way as the information saved in the medication documentation, the emergency information can only be read by authorised persons with a health profession ID. In this case, however, the additional PIN entry by the patient is not required as the patient may not be in a position to enter the PIN if the emergency information is required.

C) The electronic patient record
The electronic patient record will be introduced as the final expansion level of the voluntary application options of the electronic Health Card. The record can contain information such as the individual illness history, important laboratory findings, operation reports, as well as X-rays and digital data from other examinations. The electronic patient record makes a significant contribution to the improvement of communication between medical professionals. The data can be made available to doctors in clinics and ambulant practices. This results in improved interlinking between ambulant and in-patient treatment procedures. Extensive and time-consuming searches for medical information are eliminated. Expensive multiple examinations which put additional strain on the patient can be avoided. The electronic patient record therefore plays a key role in integrated treatment. In the future, networked medical treatment and cooperation between hospitals, rehabilitation institutions and specialist doctors and general practitioners across the board will be much easier. The data in the electronic patient record can also only accessed with the consent of the patient, entry of the personal PIN, and reading in of the health profession ID of the doctor.