Dr Philippe Olivier, Medical Director of CHC and President of Fratem (Regional Federation of Medical Telematics Associations) and RSW (Walloon Health Network), what is the position of the electronic patient file?
The Walloon Health Network’s idea is to propose a low-cost decentralised approach
“The idea of an electronic patient file at federal level was rejected” explains Dr. Philippe Olivier, Medical Director of CHC and President of Fratem. “It was a horror story! What can be done by the players in the field should be done by the players in the field. With the Walloon Health Network, we are federating all of the hospitals in Wallonia. The idea is to offer a decentralised approach by federating the EPFs held by hospitals and general practitioners. The detailed information remains located at the care providers who performed the medical procedures. Just a global index is set up and stored on the Walloon Health Network servers. Every service provider involved with a patient can query the server and receive the list of documents (radiology result, hospitalisation report, consultation result, etc.) which were referenced there for this patient. If he deems it useful to consult a document, he can request this document via the Walloon Health Network from the local server run by the service provider that drew up the document and obtain it in a few moments. At present, 30 of the 40 hospitals in Wallonia have entered into a test phase. We have just finalised the therapeutic link, i.e. testing the link between the doctor and the patient. The last stage, the web portal, which allows the various players (essentially doctors and patients) to manage the network is in the process of being developed. The operational phase is planned for during 2010, or even the end of 2009.”
But why limit this approach to Wallonia? “This project is pioneering in the sense that it federates the 40 hospitals in Wallonia and is a voluntarily open system from both an organisational and technical perspective as well as towards Brussels and Flanders. Moreover, we are in contact with several hospitals in Brussels and Ghent.”
The question of cost is also important. “We have developed a concept with a flattened cost. Several private partners offered to help us, but the price would have been much higher. In any case, a day like this is important. It provides a visible profile and clarification. From this viewpoint, Belgacom clearly espouses the role of facilitator between all of the parties concerned”.
