Former Chair of the German Ethics Council, Alena Buyx, is looking forward to the introduction of the electronic patient record for all, despite recently revealed serious security breaches. “That doesn’t change much for me” she told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. The electronic patient record has a “substantial benefit”.
It could, for instance, help patients take their tablets correctly, “since almost half of all medications are not taken as prescribed”. It would also help gather data on all statutorily insured individuals, thus enabling the verification of the effectiveness of new guidelines for certain diseases.
In response to the question of whether the COVID-19 pandemic could have been more effectively fought if the electronic patient record had already been in place, Buyx said: “It’s really a pity. One shouldn’t think too much about what could have been, otherwise one becomes melancholic.