Estonia Patient portal

The Estonian EHR project is a globally unique health information system which encompasses the whole country, registers virtually all residents’ medical history from birth to death, and is based on the comprehensive state-developed basic IT- infrastructure.

Estonia is the first country which has implemented a nationwide electronic health record system and gives full access to its citizens. This provides new opportunities to citizens, healthcare providers and e-health developers. Combining health data, citizens’ self-added health and welfare data, decision support and possibilities of service-oriented architecture of the Estonian Electronic Health Record System a new era of e-health services can begin.

e-Health Records project in Estonia

The Electronic Health Record (e-Health Record) is a nationwide system integrating data from Estonia’s different healthcare providers to create a common record every patient can access online.

Functioning very much like a centralized, national database, the e-Health Record actually retrieves data as necessary from various providers, who may be using different systems, and presents it in a standard format via the e-Patient portal. A powerful tool for doctors that allows them to access a patient’s records easily from a single electronic file, doctors can read test results as they are entered, including image files such as X-rays even from remote hospitals.

For assuring the integrity of retrieved electronic medical records as well as system access logs, the KSI blockchain technology is being used.

For example, in an emergency situation, a doctor can use a patient’s ID code to read time-critical information, such as blood type, allergies, recent treatments, on-going medication or pregnancy. The system also compiles data for national statistics, so the ministry can measure health trends, track epidemics, and make sure that its health resources are being spent wisely.

Patients have access to their own records, as well as those of their underaged children and people who have given them authorization for access. By logging into the e-Patient portal with an electronic ID-card, the patient can review doctor visits and current prescriptions, and check which doctors have had access to their files.

Each person in Estonia who has visited a doctor has his/her own online e-Health story that can be tracked. Around 1,3 million people have documents in the central database. HIS integrates data from Estonia’s different healthcare providers, creating a common record for each patient (since 2015, 99% of health data has been digitised, 97% of hospital discharge letters are sent to the central database). This gives the doctors easy access to the patient’s electronic records (test results, X-ray images etc.). Patients have access to their own and to their underaged children`s records, and the records of persons who have given authorization to them for seeing their medical data. By logging into the patient portal (ID-card/m-ID), they can review past visits to the doctor, current prescriptions, and receive general health advice.

Resource: https://e-estonia.com