Initial considerations for an electronic patient record (EPR) began around 2005, and the Federal Act on the Electronic Patient Record (EPDG in German) entered into force on April 15, 2023. Often criticized as «PDF graveyard», in mid-2023 the EPR only holds around 20,000 records, or 2 permille of the population, for a variety of reasons.
To improve this unsatisfactory situation, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) conducted a consultation on a comprehensive revision of the EPDG from June to October 2023. Due to the political processes, an update of the EPDG is not expected until 2028 at the earliest.
Alongside many other organizations, DIDAS also submitted a statement as part of this consultation, the most important points of which are listed below:
- Person centric in order to grant every citizen access to her or his complete health data
- Technology neutrality in order to take into account future wallet-based solutions
- Openness and standards to ensure the highest possible level of interoperability
- Immediate measures to generate benefits before 2028
Official DIDAS statement