René Leuenberger, Head of Digital Health Solutions, Post CH Digital Services Ltd
Many people are not aware that Swiss Post offers the electronic patient record (EPR). What motivated Swiss Post to get involved in healthcare?
Swiss Post has a long-standing reputation for transporting goods and information confidentially and reliably. It also wants to apply this competency to the Swiss healthcare system as a neutral provider. In 2013, Swiss Post developed and operated a precursor to the EPR for Geneva University Hospital: Mon Dossier Medical (with data which can be transferred to the EPR if required). The networking of stakeholders and the secure, responsible handling of sensitive data is Swiss Post’s priority when it comes to its innovative digital health services.
How do you picture the future of healthcare and of the EPR?
People will be at the heart of the healthcare ecosystem of the future. The strategic thrust of the revision of the law on the EPR, presented by the Federal Council last year, envisages everyone in Switzerland receiving their own EPR automatically at birth. It is a record for a lifetime, from first vaccinations and medical treatments through to care in old age. This means we’ll be able to manage our own health much more robustly in future.
The EPR can play an important role in networking the various stakeholders. The tangible benefits are: interoperability and networking of all systems ensure that relevant, structured data is available in real time, and treatment-related data only needs to be recorded once. As a result, this information is available to specialists prior to commencing any treatment. For patients, having to repeatedly describe their problem and duplicate examinations are a thing of a past.
Public trust is a key prerequisite for the EPR. This is why private users maintain control over their data at all times and are also able to enter their own healthcare details, making the EPR a valuable tool for preventative and personalized medicine.
How important is the new technical platform that Swiss Post will soon be launching?
The new technical problem will play an important role in boosting the appeal of the EPR. It makes it possible to integrate relevant digital use cases such as medication, prescriptions, vaccinations, emergency passports, patient decrees and much more, with the data stored in the EPR providing the basis. This turns the EPR into a gateway for healthcare applications, both for service providers and citizens.
A good example of this is the vaccination services. It is already possible today to store vaccinations as structured data in the EPR. However, there is an even greater benefit to be had if a vaccination check shows citizens if they are up to date on vaccinations and fully protected or whether second jabs/boosters are required, in which case they receive a reminder in good time. This is why, as part of a broad-based initiative, Swiss Post is planning to provide this very service, which can be offered through the new platform.
How do you take account of customer needs when refining the EPR?
In terms of use cases, we prioritize the issues that are most frequently described as beneficial in surveys. The electronic emergency passport takes top priority here, but we are also working on areas such as e-medication and electronic patient decrees. With e-medication, we aim to make prescriptions for prescription medication available in the EPR and to enable prescriptions to be filled directly at the pharmacy through the app.
The vaccination module is already available as an application that is beneficial to everyone, both young and old alike. This module, as mentioned above, is now being expanded into a comprehensive process with value-added services. The new EPR app, developed by Swiss Post on behalf of Sanela, also meets a common customer need: being able to access healthcare data with ease when on the go using the app.
A goal for the future is to integrate the EPR into the primary systems in place at hospitals and practices. How do you go about this?
Together with Sanela Connect, the Sanela reference community has developed a technical connection that enables healthcare institutions to connect the EPR to their systems with ease. What makes it special: Sanela Connect is compatible with the various primary systems used in Switzerland, which saves the healthcare institution having to make interface modifications. If a healthcare institution decides to deeply integrate the EPR, processes and data transfers to the EPR can be largely automated.
Why is it already worth opening an EPR right now?
Many people recognize the future advantages of the EPR, but fail to appreciate the benefit it already offers today. Even simple documents such as PDFs can be crucial at the right time. This is why every entry counts, whether structured or unstructured. Whatever is fed into the EPR now will be available in the future whenever it’s needed. Even today, unstructured documents can be converted into structured data with the aid of artificial intelligence. Moreover, the vaccination module also already allows structured data to be stored.
Open an EPR now
Opening your own personal EPR is a small step with a big impact – for your own safety, health and the future of medical care.
