Digital transformation is a key factor in providing more efficient healthcare and better treatment. The EPR is ideally placed to form the centerpiece of a digitized healthcare system. However, an adapted legal framework is required to make the most of this potential. The Federal Council’s E-GD realignment is an important step towards making this happen.
Swiss Post welcomes this realignment and sees it as a decisive step towards the digital transformation of the Swiss healthcare system. In future, the record is expected to be automatically made available to the entire population, while also obliging all healthcare professionals to connect to it. The E-GD will therefore lay the foundation for a uniform, efficient and widely supported system for managing digital health data.
A single, centralized E-GD platform simplifies development for E-GD providers as well as platform integration for healthcare providers. Swiss Post welcomes this strategic thrust as it gives all stakeholders the necessary boost for the nationwide roll-out of the E-GD. At the same time, it is important to build on what already exists. Cantons, healthcare providers and platform providers have invested heavily in the current EPR in recent years. To protect these investments, the E-GD needs to be seamlessly compatible with the existing EPR landscape.
Throughout this long transition phase, close cooperation between all stakeholders is crucial to ensure that digital progress continues smoothly. It has been made clear that EPRs can still be opened and will remain fully usable, and they will be seamlessly transferred to the E-GD at a later date. The EPR will remain indispensable until the new system is available as hospitals, medical professionals and private users continue to rely on the existing solution.
More information as well as Swiss Post’s position on the key aspects of the realignment can be found in the position paper.