SPOTLIGHT Healthcare: Electronic health records

It’s time the German health care system introduced electronic health records. Experts have long agreed on the need for this, and now German law mandates it. But what steps should be taken to ensure e-health records yield comprehensive benefits? Answers to these questions are provided in the expert report “Einrichtungsübergreifende Elektronische Patientenakten als Basis für integrierte patientenzentrierte Behandlungsmanagement-Plattformen” (in German). Professor Peter Haas, Medical Information Scientist at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences, Dortmund, offers both an introduction to the conditions required for an e-health records system that cuts across institutions and recommendations for its broad-scale implementation.