Swisscom has carried out testing of technical infrastructure and use cases for the electronic patient dossier (EPD) – as Switzerland prepares to roll out electronic health records in 2020.
The EPD is a personal health record that collates treatment-related documents, including information on prescriptions, vaccinations and hospital discharge reports. It is scheduled to be deployed across Switzerland from April next year.
Swisscom is supplying the technology to support this in 13 cantons (areas) in Switzerland.
Alongside other providers, Swisscom participated in nine group tests, in which it successfully tested the opening of an EPD, patient access to documents and healthcare facility access to patient documents.
The Swisscom team also reports successfully conducting numerous individual tests – focusing on authorisation and recording information, for example, as well as access to documents in an EPD.
On course
The EPD Projectathon testing was initiated by the Federal Office of Public Health to give software providers the opportunity to test their EPD solutions under real-life conditions and develop them further with a view to obtaining the necessary state certification.
Swisscom says the multi-day test series successfully demonstrated the operational viability of the EPD throughout Switzerland.
Thomas Bachofner, CEO of Swisscom Health, the healthcare-focused subsidiary of Swisscom, said there was “a way to go” but added: “The test results bear testimony to the sound work that we have completed in this area in recent years and show that we are on course for the EPD rollout in one year’s time”.