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E-prescription pilot started in Germany
The e-recipe app on Apple’s App Store on an iPhone. Photo: Christoph Dernbach / dpa
Illegible doctor’s manuscripts on a prescription will soon be a thing of the past. The introduction of the e-recipe starts with a small field trial, but should be nationwide from 2022.
The introduction of the digital recipe in Germany is taking concrete forms.
On Thursday, the official app for the electronic recipe (e-recipe) was made available for free download in the app stores of Apple and Google. At the same time, a pilot test was launched in Berlin and Brandenburg: around 50 medical practices and 120 pharmacies will test and evaluate the new e-prescription.
The app comes from Gematik GmbH, which is majority owned by the federal government and is responsible for building a secure health data network. The Federal Ministry of Health and Gematik expect the e-prescription to increase the safety of medicines for patients if all medicines taken are continuously tested with regard to side effects and interactions. In addition, the entire process from the prescription in the doctor’s offices to the collection by the patient to the billing at the health insurance companies should be made much more efficient.
It may take a few weeks before the first digital recipes are exhibited, because in the pilot test in Berlin and Brandenburg, selected partners will initially simulate various test scenarios. The aim is to investigate and test the interaction of the various systems under real conditions. The e-prescription will then become mandatory for all practices in January 2022. A quarter earlier, in October 2021, the digital version of the “yellow note”, i.e. the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (EAU), is already mandatory.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has now granted the system a release. The review found” no material deficiencies, ” the audit report said. However, the BSI wants to allow the regular start from 2022 only if the required requirements are implemented. In the future, users will be warned in the app if they do not protect access to their smartphone with a code or fingerprint. You should also receive a notification of unusual login attempts. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported on the release of the app and the requirements of the BSI.
With the e-prescription pilot trial, the third phase of the large-scale digitization project of the German health care system, the introduction of the electronic patient record (ePA), also starts. As of July 1, all medical practices should be connected to the digital telematics infrastructure of the healthcare system (TI). According to the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), “almost all practices of resident doctors and psychotherapists” are connected to TI, which is intended to enable secure and fast data exchange in the healthcare sector.
Gottfried Ludewig, Head of the Digitization and Innovation department at the Federal Ministry of Health, recalled during a visit to an already networked Berlin doctor’s office that the launch of the electronic patient record was preceded by a discussion lasting over 18 years. The ePa will now “be able to be used step by step in more and more medical practices”. At the end of September, it will be available throughout Germany. “With the electronic patient record, data can be exchanged more quickly and stored longer-term. This will improve patient care.»
The head of Gematik GmbH, Markus Leyck Dieken, spoke of a” new era “that is now” finally starting for doctors and patients”. “Over the next few months, people will notice more and more that it is easier for them to always have their findings with them using the electronic patient record.»
Medical practices that are not affiliated with TI may be punished with a fee deduction in the future. However, the sanctions have been suspended for the time being, since not all common IT systems in the practices can be docked to TI. According to Gematik, the approval for the corresponding upgrade at the last missing authoritative provider will take place”in a few weeks”.
