The expansion of the digital patient record was presented today during a meeting hosted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Maximos Palace. This is the chapter that offers citizens new digital registration services for 431 laboratory tests.

In particular, the digital file found in the MyHealth app now includes, in addition to medical referrals and digital appointments with a personal doctor, tests that a citizen has passed. As the sources emphasize, this makes life easier for both patients and treating physicians, as it provides easy access to a file of valuable information for the management of each case, without requiring the citizen to bother in the secretariats of medical institutions or carry paper files with diagnoses and medical results.

“This is a very important initiative that we are announcing today, following the important interventions we have taken on the healthcare digitization front, and I believe it will be greatly appreciated by all MyHealth users and obviously also by doctors. Because the goal has always been and always is that the attending physician, and I would say, especially the personal physician, have the opportunity to have full access to the patient’s medical history, which obviously becomes much easier thanks to such digital tools,” said the Prime Minister during the meeting. presentation by Minister of Health Thanos Plevris and Minister for Public and Digital Governance Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

Digital health and new digital technologies open a whole new window for us

“Our goal here is to really be able to be pioneers, because digital healthcare and new digital technologies open up a completely new window for us, not only in how to simplify the very process of contacting a patient with the healthcare system so that he does not run away to a medical center, to a diagnostic center, to hospital for examination. It is obvious. But mainly in a combination of different applications that will allow us to better control our own behavior so that we can live a healthier life in general, ”said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

A new electronic tool in the service of citizens

At the second stage of development, the infrastructure of the digital patient record supports the integration of 431 laboratory tests, which corresponds to more than 90% of the daily test volume. Imaging studies (mammography, X-ray, etc.) will be included in the coming months, bringing coverage to over 92%.

The file will be “enriched” by hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers through gov.gr (myhealth.gov.gr) or alternatively through the MyHealth mobile phone application, where citizens can issue test results and hospitalization certificates or visit .

At the first stage of the file implementation, more than 55 public hospitals throughout the territory are supported, while the digital repository of examinations, diagnoses and certificates roughly covers the period from September 1, 2022 and already includes almost 3.5 million documents.

With the full development of the system, all public and private healthcare structures will be covered, and this process is expected to be completed during 2023, with a history of examinations and hospitalizations going back several years.

Single digital folder

Greece was one of the few countries in the world that did not have a single digital health card, to which the citizen and the doctor have access to view their medical history and which “follows” the patient, regardless of the structure or hospital where the examinations were carried out. out or care.

The introduction of the digital patient record follows a series of initiatives to digitize care and prevention services, such as non-tangible prescriptions, digital appointments, Operation Eleftheria for free Covid-19 vaccinations, Covid vaccination digital certificate, and digital confirmations of Covid tests.

As part of the maximum synergy between these digital infrastructures, the prescription system accessed by doctors will interact with the test repository so that the personal or attending physician can, with the consent of the patient, access the history without the citizen providing anything.

“I am sure that the number of MyHealth users will increase significantly, because, in addition, I emphasize, we have already proved this with electronic prescription, which was an innovative system for its time, which we greatly simplified, as well as with the help of all digital management vaccination process, there is also a much greater familiarity of citizens with technologies on these issues,” the prime minister added.

“Now a digital patient file is being created. We have all the information in the file. This makes it much easier for the attending physician, and especially the personal physician, to completely update the file each time. As you understand, in the new plan that we have for One Health, we have the ability from the very beginning, from preventive checkups, to primary health care, to our hospitals, in general, to have complete monitoring in a very simple way. both on the part of a doctor and on the part of a citizen,” Health Minister Thanos Plyuris said.

“In fact, we combine all the fields of exams in a central system with a single standard. They come in automatically, and we have interoperability, as we have in general in the state, we have it here, as the central logic of the infrastructure. The goal is to do away with the health bureaucracy so that there are no unnecessary visits to the secretaries of the health departments. In this way, we also get rid of the need to distribute paper-based exams,” said Minister of State and Digital Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

The repository of analyzes and certificates of hospitalization is implemented by IDIKA. The Ministry of Health was responsible for the operational integration of hospitals into the system. The Ministry of Digital Management played a coordinating role at the technical and operational level. The project was joined and financed by the Recovery Fund.

The Prime Minister-chaired meeting was attended by Minister of Health Thanos Plevris, Minister of Digital Governance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of State Akis Skertsos, Deputy Minister of Health Mina Gaga, Deputy Minister of Health Zoe Rapti, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Theodoros Livanios, Secretary General of Health Services Ioannis Kotsiopulos , Secretary General of Primary Health Care Marios Themistokleous, IDIKA Managing Director Niki Tsouma, Director of the Special Office of the Minister of Digital Governance Konstantinos Ambidis, Partner of the Minister of Digital Governance Apostolos Papadopoulos and Director of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Kostas Tsantidis.