Munich (dpa/lby) - Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to promote the nationwide implementation of the electronic patient file (ePA). Above all, data protection and technical issues played a role, he said on Saturday at the YES!CON cancer conference in Munich. One of the core achievements of the next few years should be the ability to securely exchange digital findings between doctors, patients and clinics. The topic is of the utmost importance, which is why the prerequisites for this should be created in the coming years.
According to Lauterbach, the corona pandemic - if anything positive can be drawn from it at all - has already brought about progress in digitization. Examples are the digital vaccination certificate or the electronic transmission of certificates of incapacity for work.
The ePa as a voluntary offer for the 73 million people with statutory health insurance started on January 1, 2021 in a test phase. Medical findings, for example, can be stored and forwarded in the file. The traffic light coalition is aiming for people to actively object to the use of electronic patient files and not have to actively consent to them.
