Interfaces: Law should simplify doctors' change of IT host
Legislature wants to simplify the exchange of data between different systems among doctors' offices and wants to establish open interfaces.
BERLIN. The German Bundestag wants to achieve that IT systems in doctors' offices and hospitals provide standardised interfaces for a change in system and for pharmaceutical modules. <link http: www.aerztezeitung.de praxis_wirtschaft praxis_edv article offene-schnittstellen-gesetzgeber-will-wechsel-des-it-anbieters-erleichtern.html external-link-new-window internal link in current>This way a change of systems or combination should be made easier and cheaper (we reported shortly).
Broadly unnoticed by the expert audience, the German Bundestag has become active for e-health legislation just before the federal election this autumn. For the future doctors, dentists and hospitals should be able to change their IT system easily and "take" archived patient information with them.
Doctors avoid system change
A data transfer in the ambulant medical treatment sector is already possible today. According to industrial circles there are about 5000 system changes every year. The procedure is relatively expensive in effort and money which is why many doctors avoid a change of systems. Connecting additional software (e.g. pharmaceutical modules of external manufacturers) to the own IT system cannot simply be done.
This is where politics want to take immediate remedial action. Only known now is that on 1 June a "law for the modernisation of epidemiologic monitoring of communicable diseases" was passed in the third reading. It contains a distinct tightenting of paragraph 291d SGB V. Previous regulation called for the IT hosts to provide interfaces for "system neutral archiving of patients' data as well as for the transfer of patients' data in case of system change as soon as possible". For several years there have been ongoing discourses between industry and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany about certification in this area.
Politics' patience apparently gave out now. The revised form of paragraph 291d implies that "open and standarised interfaces" have to be integrated into existing IT systems of doctors' offices within the next two years. The interfaces could be introduced by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany and could be located in the register of interoperability by gematik. The new paragraph is not only valid for IT systems in doctors' offices and clinical information systems, but also explictly for pharmaceutical modules. Everything should be backed by a certification whereas the legislative text does not state clearly whether the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany or a third party should serve as this certified facility.
Two-year-clock will tick
The moment of a change in law is appropriate insofar as the implied register of interoperability by gematik begins operation on 1 July. Public bodies like the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany as well as companies and standard organisations can introduce standards into the register after that date if gematik agrees. Afterwards, the two-year-clock will tick for companies.
A first positive reaction on the "new" paragraph 291d - the Federal Council of Germany still has to approve the law - came from Berlin-based Verband Digitale Gesundheit. The change in law would be the right way, agrees Florian Fuhrmann from the KV Telematik in communication with "Ärztezeitung". He emphasized that the Federal Ministry of Health would still reserve a right to set deadlines for the integration of more interfaces into the IT systems in doctors' offices through legal decree. This passage cannot be found yet within the law.
