 | | | | |
| | | | | |
|
Telemedecine Alliance About the TM AllianceThe TM-Alliance VisionTelemedicine Alliance partnersTMA-Bridge About TMA-BridgeTMA-Bridge partnersTMA-Bridge Interoperability workshopTMA-Bridge Strategy WorkshopTMA-Bridge ClosureKey TMA Documents TMA-Bridge Final BrochureBrochure for Ministerial ConferenceTM-Alliance BrochureTMA-Bridge PresentationSummary of TMA-Final ReportTelemedecine About telemedicineeHealth in actionRelated ESA Sites ESA TelecommunicationsESA Human Spaceflight and ExplorationServices Contact us
| | | | | | | | | TTC 2003 ESA | |
Electronic Cards in Citizen Health Care - The Urgency for Concerted Action:
15 October 2003
Part of the administration of healthcare in most European countries usually includes some form of a health card. This card comes in a variety of forms ranging from simply a piece of plastic with some useful information printed or embossed on it, to a card furnished with a magnetic stripe, or to the more advanced card having an electronic chip inside, commonly known as the Smartcard. In the meantime, many EU member- and aspirant states are now gearing up for the future, defining, testing, and in some cases already introducing a new generation of Smartcards to be used for health purposes and in some cases for other purposes as well. These new developments, which are also fostered by the eEurope Smartcard Initiative, are part of a natural evolution made possible by the digital and network technologies pervasive in almost every aspect of business and daily life of the citizen.
The new developments in the sphere of health cards show promise to harness the forces of the new technologies of our information society to serve the citizen more efficiently and effectively than ever before, also precluding the generation of much unnecessary and costly paperwork. The savings thus achieved could well contribute towards restraining the runaway costs of healthcare.
| | TTC 2003, Tromso | |
There is the downside to these otherwise worthy developments: Each country is making immense investment in specialized technologies that are different from those being developed or introduced in other countries. This means that the interoperability of the new cards outside their country of origin may eventually be limited to the E111 sticker on the national healthcards. It is thus clear to all key players that unless a concerted effort is made very quickly to guarantee greater interoperability of health cards across national borders, the chance to do so with minimum cost may be permanently lost.
TM-Alliance Workshop on electronic Cards
The TMA has recognised this dilemma and the urgency of taking action, and for this reason they recently organised a workshop “Electronic Cards in Citizen Health Care”, held in Barcelona 13-15 March 2003. This workshop served three purposes:
- To identify the purposes of electronic patients’ cards, and the prerequisites for interoperability.
- To identify the conditions under which ‘SmartCards’ will work optimally as the central pivotal tool:
- for realizing cross-border free movement of patients, being a co-requisite for the free movement of citizens across the EU, and
- for contributing to the full implementation of eHealth in all its aspects in Europe.
- To evaluate the type, magnitude and complexity of the difficulties of solving problems across borders, and, to investigate the methodology for other e-health telemedicine applications.
A summary of the results of this workshop, the next steps to be taken, and a vision of the ultimate goals was presented.
| |
| | More information Other TM EventsTTC 2003 TromsoTM-Alliance at TTC2003Presentation on Data Privacy
|
