Can technology contribute to the quality of care offered by doctors?
Dr. Jacques de Toeuf, former chairman of ABSyM
Doctors are looking forward to an integrated network that goes beyond regional initiatives and which provides the technological foundation for increasing the quality of care and to simplifying the doctor’s range of tasks.
Today, medical information is archived and exchanged at regional level. The next logical step is an integrated network that goes beyond regional initiatives. The regional government launched the eHealth project in this context. Doctors’ expectations of eHealth can be expressed as: a user-friendly platform with very specific access management, that respects the doctor’s professional confidentiality and the patient’s privacy. eHealth must raise the quality of care and simplify the doctor’s range of tasks, e.g. relating to prescriptions.
However, some conditions are centrally important for the medical profession if a technological platform for health data is to be introduced. Respect for confidentiality of the medical data and professional confidentiality is primordially important. Furthermore, the securitisation of data via an asymmetrical encryption is also a prerequisite. It should provide an assurance that data can be exchanged on a strictly confidential basis. Finally, the access rules must be clearly defined and fully traceable. All of this does not adversely affect the principle that the patient must give his explicit agreement about who can deal with what data at what point in time.
