Information for patients

In our environment we experience new communication and information technologies every day. Cell phones, faxes, computers, internet: all these have become a common part of our everyday life. What we call eHealth is the idea of using these technologies in healthcare. The sixth EU ministerial conference on eHealth was held at the beginning of May in Portoroz under the Slovenian presidency.

One of the main topics under discussion was electronic healthcare evidence, electronic prescriptions, and the definitive identification of patients and healthcare providers. Information in electronic form can be better accumulated, executed and transferred, and can also be better rated. Therefore, it is important for healthcare information to be provided in electronic form – it’s more widely available and can be there at the right time and place. Moreover, the processing of this data is very precious for science and the collection of information will provide a valuable resource for other scientists in the same field. Electronic processing of information can provide an effective support to decisions made by specialists.

Our common goal is the health of our citizens. Besides genetic elements our health is influenced by lifestyle, work and life conditions, and the quality of healthcare services. And for the good of our health we also need information. In the last couple of decades citizens’ interest in their own health has been rapidly growing. Access to information is a fundamental condition for health promotion and education. Information must be available and of good quality. The internet is an excellent tool for spreading such information, but it is necessary to improve availability of data, especially regarding the ease of searching for it and how comprehensible it is when it’s found.

There are many unimpeachable reasons for supporting and developing the use of new communication and information technologies in healthcare, as we do in other fields. In the EU we emphasise mutual interoperability. Information in each local, regional and national information system must be gathered in such a way that it can be easily used in another system, in another region or in another country. The portability of information is the way to sequence healthcare that is provided to people who move within the community.

Information must be available in the mother tongue of citizens and in all member countries. At the same time, the information must be presented in such a form that non-specialists with a primary education can also understand it. Governments of all countries should support portals that are patient-oriented, that present information for patients and at the same time monitor the corresponding quality of the information. It is not possible to control or even censor the content of health information on the internet, but it is possible to create surroundings where a non-specialist can differentiate between solid information and information of poor quality.

In recent decades the process of providing healthcare services has completely changed. In my grandfather’s generation patients were taken care of by one family doctor who had only a slight amount of objective information at his disposal. Medicine was more an art than a technical discipline, and the doctor was making decisions according to his own subjective observation of the patient, his skin colour, pulse and respiration. The crucial factor for successful treatment was the talent and experience of the doctor; later on, it depended more on the technical equipment and  drugs he had at his disposal (for example, X-rays and antibiotics). Doctors did not have the need to transfer or share information with other doctors – one practitioner was responsible for the entire treatment. His only concern about sharing information was searching for professional books and magazines and participating in conferences.

Today, the same patient is being taken care of by a team of specialists. They have a whole range of laboratory, haematological, biochemical, immunological, bacteriological and virological tests, and a whole range of visual methods and functional examinations at their disposal. New information is thrown up at every step of the treatment. Experts share the patient without meeting each other and without having the possibility to inform each other about the results of their work. Healthcare is not provided on one spot, but more often than not, in several clinics or in different hospitals. It has even become common that healthcare is provided in different cities or countries.

Thanks to these developments, though, we have the possibility to cure diseases today that were hopeless many years ago. A landslide of new information influences every expert. We do not have the manpower to familiarise ourselves with all innovations, or follow up all information even in one specialised field. This situation emphasises the need to use new information and communications technologies that allow us to work with the information.

Working with a large amount of information means it is necessary to have it available at the right time and place. Availability of information has a fundamental impact on the quality and safety of healthcare. A doctor who has access to information at the critical moment decides more quickly, and with more quality, safety and effectiveness. In recent years there has been a lot of work done in formulating solutions and priorities, alongside theoretical studies on the possibilities created by technologies and tools for eHealth. Leading experts have drafted excellent studies and analyses and many pilot projects have been launched, but now is the right time to start implementing the plans that have been prepared.

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