Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany, and its partner hospitals of the Health Centers Rhein-Neckar GmbH will be able to jointly access their patients medical data. Using the Professional Suite of the international eHealth specialist, InterComponentWare AG (ICW), this cooperation will enable those involved in a patient's treatment to access medical data via an interfacility medical record. As one of the largest medical centers in Germany, Heidelberg University Hospital serves many patients who commute between the University Hospital and other regional hospitals closer to the patient's home. In the future, the networking solution in the ICW Professional Suite will ensure that patient treatment is continued seamlessly from facility to facility without losing medical information. Authorized physicians at Heidelberg University Hospital and other cooperating hospitals receive access to an interfacility web-based medical record which contains information and documents on their respective patients. Access to this data is restricted to only nursing staff and physicians involved in any given patients treatment.
Information in the interfacility medical record is compiled from the IT systems and PACS of the connected facilities. This allows members of the medical record administration to use a high-performance Master Patient Index (MPI) in which the patient data from different facilities is reliably and safely allocated to the proper patient. Since the networking solution in the ICW Professional Suite uses HL7 standards, existing IT systems can be logically upgraded without having to be replaced.
Prof. Björn Bergh, MD, Director of Information and Medical Technology at Heidelberg University Hospital comments: "We are pursuing two main goals with this project: Facilitating the access to relevant information of mutual patients and actively including patient participation in the treatment process. In both instances, we have found the ideal partner in ICW and have jointly developed a pragmatic concept to help us achieve these goals without interfering with existing systems. Peter Reuschel, Chief Executive Officer of ICW, emphasizes: "We are pleased to have found innovative partners at Heidelberg University Hospital and at the Health Centers Rhein-Neckar with whom we can utilize our networking solutions. Initially we will network the participating hospitals with each other. Then in phase two, we will integrate information systems of office-based physicians with patients' LifeSensor personal health records. This integration promotes improved medical care and disease prevention."
Related news articles:
- InterComponentWare AG (ICW)'s Profile
About InterComponentWare
InterComponentWare AG (ICW) is a leading international eHealth specialist with locations in Germany, the United States, Austria, Switzerland, and Bulgaria. Its solutions for networking the various players in the healthcare system lastingly improve process-oriented communication and data integrity, and therefore also the quality of healthcare. Among other things, ICW develops and distributes software and hardware components for the healthcare IT infrastructure for electronic health cards, the LifeSensor Personal Health Record as well as networking solutions for hospitals and physician offices. As part of the bIT4health consortium, ICW provided important consulting services for the implementation of the electronic health card in Germany, is involved in the Austrian eCard project and has recently won the pilot project for the national health card in Bulgaria.