Thanks to itsme^®, patients are in charge of their own medical records

Happy New Year – and may it be a healthy one, too! As 2019 begins, this is the warm wish that our teams are sending out to all users of the Belgian ID application, itsme^®. It makes sense, too, because itsme^® has always combined security and confidentiality. And, let’s face it, what could be more confidential than details about our health?

There are all sorts of reasons for this. We might, for instance, want to switch to a new GP. In which case, what happens to our medical records? Unfortunately, they don’t necessarily just “follow” us to our new doctor, which means we would have start all over again. And that’s just the beginning. Because in addition to our visits to see the GP, there are consultations with specialists, plus, of course, any time spent in hospital. In an ideal world, all of this information should follow the patient so that each medical practitioner, whether we see them for an ordinary consultation or as an emergency, has the benefit of a complete and up-to-date overview of our health records. Today, thanks to digitisation, the solution exists with the Summarised Electronic Health Record, which specialists also call “Sumehr”. But whatever you call it, it is essential for sensitive shared information such as medical records to comply with extremely strict rules in terms of data security and protecting the privacy of both the patient and the healthcare provider. Not to mention respecting medical confidentiality. All of these points have now been dealt with by itsme^® – now all we have to do is convince patients.

To make this happen, the federal government has speeded up the process for giving patients access to their own information. With the help of the itsme^® application, they can go straight to the federal MyHealth portal where they will find the results of their tests, details of their current prescriptions, past and future vaccines – and so on. And when they do so, they will also see and appreciate the level of security in place to protect their data. For example, it is impossible for a healthcare provider to access a patient’s medical records if he/she is unable to establish a link in relation to the patient’s treatment. So, if a doctor is asked by an employer to obtain information or someone working for an insurance company or health fund wants a patient’s details, they will simply come up against a brick wall. That’s because the patient holds the keys to his/her health records. With itsme^®, it is the patient who gives permission for this or that information to be shared with a particular medical professional. And the patient can also find out at any time who has consulted what and when. In the end, the patient is the winner, benefiting from continuity of care while maintaining complete control over the data exchanged – while being able to consult his/her own details at any time.