Challenge

When people need healthcare while travelling, working or living abroad, doctors may have little reliable information about their medical history, allergies, chronic conditions or current medication. Language barriers and incompatible national systems make it harder to diagnose patients safely, replace essential medicines or avoid potentially dangerous prescriptions.

Many European countries operate electronic patient records and prescription services, but these systems do not automatically communicate across borders. For cross-border services to earn the trust of patients and professionals, they must also protect sensitive health data, verify users securely and present information accurately in the language of the treating professional.

Solutions

epSOS developed and tested a common framework through which national eHealth systems could exchange two essential types of information: Patient Summaries and ePrescriptions/eDispensations. Rather than replacing existing national systems, it defined shared specifications, terminology, architecture, identification methods and security requirements that allowed different systems to work together.

Through the service, an authorised professional could retrieve a visiting patient’s essential health information in an understandable format, while a pharmacy could process an electronic prescription issued in another participating country. The project examined legal and organisational requirements before testing these services in real healthcare environments.

Results

During its six-year lifespan, epSOS expanded to 25 countries and around 50 beneficiaries. Sixteen pilots reached live operation, demonstrating that Patient Summaries and ePrescriptions could be exchanged across borders despite differences in languages, clinical terminology and national technology. Healthcare professionals who tested the system reported benefits for communication, clinical safety and patient management, while also identifying remaining barriers involving data reliability, system access and IT architecture.

epSOS produced reusable technical and organisational building blocks covering governance, data content, semantics, system architecture and testing. Its results were carried forward by subsequent European initiatives and helped prepare the foundations for today’s MyHealth@EU infrastructure, through which EU countries are introducing cross-border Patient Summary and ePrescription services.