Granted, there is criticism of the EPR. But this ignores the fact that a lot has happened in recent months. Starting the meeting, Rajesh Nair, Head of Digital Health at Swiss Post, outlined the positive changes there have been since the advisory board’s first meeting: rising user numbers, further use cases with structured data, EPR App for convenient access to health data via smartphone.
One important challenge discussed at the last meeting has seen a major step forward as a result of the Federal Council’s policy decision that, in future, there will be only one technical platform for the EPR. This will greatly simplify the process of development on the part of EPR providers and integration of the platform by healthcare providers.
More connected institutions and growing user numbers
But there has been major progress in other areas too: over 1,300 institutions are now connected to the EPR, four million documents have already been uploaded and 100,000 new documents are being added every month. At several large hospitals, such as University Hospital Zurich (USZ) and Balgrist University Hospital, deep integration means that data is now automatically stored in the EPR.
