From January 2025, all doctors – in both hospitals and practices – must be able to fill out an electronic patient file. It is important that the software is also “ePA-ready”. For the “new EPA”, EPA 3.0, “interoperability and the binding nature of the interoperability process” are important building blocks. Susanne Ozegowski, head of the department of digitalization and innovation at the Ministry of Health, explained this in a question and answer session at the 9th German Interoperability Day. Otherwise the EPA cannot function in Germany.
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According to Ozhegowski, circulation of the EPA has been hampered so far because doctors have not been able or willing to fill it out. Exactly the same change will take place from January. Certainly there will be points “where there will be pain, where errors still happen,” but there is “a clear process” on how to deal with them, Ozhegovsky said confidently.
To strengthen the reliability of IT systems, there is now “a whole list of different tools” – this includes, for example, more powers for Gematic as a health agency of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). The Competence Center for Interoperability in Healthcare (KIG) located at Gematic aims to ensure interoperability of applications.
No wave of complaints yet
Ozzegowski presented laws announced for this purpose at the last German Interoperability Day – including the possibility for software companies to sue each other if they do not comply with Gematic’s requirements. There has been no flurry of lawsuits yet. Ozhegowski also responded to Melanie Wendling, managing director of the Federal Health IT Association, asking whether regulation stifles innovation by saying that “standards are really the basis for innovation in the first place”, for example due to lock-in effects. To stop.
Questions were also raised about how to reach those who want an EPA but are unable to register for an EPA, and whether the Health Minister’s educational campaign about “nine reasons for electronic patient records” is sufficient. 1.5 million people have created an EPA since its launch in 2021. Since this is not enough for BMG, it now comes automatically for everyone.
Compliant with the requirements “EPA for all”.
According to Ozhegowski, there is a large segment of the population that says: “I want my medical care to work, but I don’t want to actively deal with it myself.” This part doesn’t want to go through the registration process and assign permissions yourself. BMG also wants to meet this need with EPA 3.0. She also expects there will be more active users who at least want to view their data or receive vaccination reminders.
Better exchange about interoperability should be possible between different actors, hospitals, doctors, health insurance companies and industry, “through various working groups that are also associated with the Interop Council or KIG”. The topic of AI is also a hope for interoperability. Generative language models are already in use that listen to doctor-patient conversations and automatically transcribe, analyze, and code the conversation.
However, digitalization always requires investments that take time to start paying off. At the same time there is shortage of money; When Ozhegovsky was asked about the ongoing budget discussions, he admitted that he did not have a suitcase of money. When asked what would happen next if the current alliance no longer existed, Ozhegovsky replied that a number of changes have been made to the Social Security Code SGB V.
(Mac)
