BMJ  2008;336:689 (29 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39532.359688.DB

News

Germany set to introduce electronic patient cards despite doctors’ opposition

Ned Stafford

1 Hamburg

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Electronic health cards are finally scheduled to be introduced in April in parts of Germany. But Germany’s doctors—who have been adamantly opposed to e-cards from the start—are still voicing resistance.

Initially the cards will contain only patients’ emergency data, but eventually they will include patients’ prescriptions and medical records, which will be stored on central servers.

The German Medical Association issued a press release earlier this month that claimed that patient data stored on central servers would not be secure and would be open for commercial exploitation. "Patients are not commercial products," the press release declared. A few days earlier the medical association of the state of Hesse warned, "Big Brother does not belong in the medical practice computer."

Andreas Deffner, spokesman for the German Health Ministry, which in 2001 proposed mandatory e-cards, says the programme will move rapidly forward from April, adding, "There is no stopping the electronic health . . . [Full text of this article]


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