Electronic health records in Austria

In 2004, the European Commission presented its Communication ‘e-Health – making healthcare better for European citizens: An Action Plan for a European e-Health Area’. In this so-called e-Health Action Plan, Member States were requested, among other things, to set roadmaps for the implementation of information and communications technologies in healthcare. E-health is the integrated management of citizens’ health using information and communications technologies to support the processes of all stakeholders involved in healthcare, and with particular attention being paid to data protection and data security. Due to the complex nature of data protection regulations on electronic health records, the Working Group tasked with advising the European Union on matters relating to data protection in accordance with Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC has placed a special focus on these issues. In their working paper of 15 February 2007, the Article 29 Working Group on data protection provided an aid for interpreting the data protection regulations applicable for such systems – and therefore also for electronic health records. In their paper they define several general principles, provide concrete advice on the demands that must be placed on data protection and examine in greater depth the protective mechanisms that such systems must offer.

 Following this recommendation, the legal framework for electronic health records in Austria was defined in the Health Telematics Act. In addition to the patients themselves, access to electronic health records is limited exclusively to healthcare providers who are explicitly identified and directly involved with treatment, and where this is the wish of the patient. Every access to the records is registered. Access to electronic health records is only possible via secured networks. By 2015, the most important health data as well as the latest medical knowledge will be available to healthcare service providers (doctors, hospitals, laboratories etc.) in Austria in an optimally prepared format, irrespective of place or time.

 In Austria, data relating to the personal health of people with psychological illnesses is neither separately recorded nor saved for the purposes of gathering statistical information about future cost trends for treating these illnesses in Austria.