Der Nutzen der Schweizer Teilnahme im europäischen Projekt epSOS

Abstract

epSOS (Smart Open Services for European Patients) was launched in July 2008 and is a European project, which is organised by representatives from different countries. The main objective of epSOS is the development and practical implementation of an eHealth framework and an information and communication technology infrastructure in Europe. Switzerland participates with the Canton of Geneva and the University Hospitals of Geneva with epSOS. Each participating country had to build a National Contact Point (NCP) as a national gateway for the transnational data exchange within epSOS. The secure connection between the various national NCPs forms the basis for the epSOS ‘circle of trust’. In epSOS at project start various legal, political, organisational and technical challenges arose based on the heterogeneity of the health systems in the EU countries, especially as health care is not part of the EU treaty. In this sense, the European situation at the beginning of the project is comparable with the Swiss one: firstly both don’t have a uniform legal basis, and secondly, the EU has a federal structure that is similar to the one in Switzerland. Both require a high coordination effort. The epSOS project has achieved the desired proof of concept. Since the second semester of 2012, the first countries are online with their use cases. This demonstrates that it is possible to find unified electronic processes even when starting from diverse situations. However, epSOS probably won’t be the solution for a homogeneous European solution for the transnational exchange of health data in the near future – as there are tremendous differences between the national eHealth infrastructures, policies and levels of development. The in epSOS implemented emergency data sets, electronic patient records and electronic prescriptions can make a major contribution to patient safety, by providing the medical personnel in emergency situations with lifesaving information to prevent treatment errors and to avoid the repetition of diagnostic procedures .