OpenEHR Implementation Guide: Towards Standard Low-Code Healthcare Systems.

Several open source components have been made available in recent years to help develop full openEHR systems. Still doubts exist if these are sufficient. This paper presents a case study of implementing a low-code openEHR system, investigating the feasibility and challenges of developing a system using these components for each step. The method used consisted in selecting successful examples of implementation case studies, identifying key development steps, and for each step searching for possible open source options. As a result, we had a working low-code openEHR powered EHR, successfully demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed implementation guide. The main available free or open source components used were ArchetypeDesigner and EHRbase, developed by Better and Vita/HighMed respectively. In our opinion, it is possible to build EHR systems using the available open source components, but support is still missing in the front end, specifically for form generation and screen representation.

OpenEHR and General Data Protection Regulation: Evaluation of Principles and Requirements.

BACKGROUND: Concerns about privacy and personal data protection resulted in reforms of the existing legislation in the European Union (EU). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to reform the existing directive on the topic of personal data protection of EU citizens with a strong emphasis on more control of the citizens over their data and in the establishment of rules for the processing of personal data. OpenEHR is a standard that embodies many principles of interoperable and secure software for electronic health records (EHRs) and has been advocated as the best approach for the development of hospital information systems. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand to what extent the openEHR standard can help in the compliance of EHR systems to the GDPR requirements. METHODS: A list of requirements for an EHR to support GDPR compliance and also a list of the openEHR design principles were made. The requirements were categorized and compared with the principles by experts on openEHR and GDPR. RESULTS: A total of 50 GDPR requirements and 8 openEHR design principles were identified. The openEHR principles conformed to 30% (15/50) of GDPR requirements. All the openEHR principles were aligned with GDPR requirements. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the openEHR principles conform well to GDPR, underlining the common wisdom that truly realizing security and privacy requires it to be built in from the start. By using an openEHR-based EHR, the institutions are closer to becoming compliant with GDPR while safeguarding the medical data.

openEHR Based Systems and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The concerns about privacy and personal data protection resulted in reforms of the existing legislation in European Union (EU). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to reform the existing measures on the topic of personal data protection of the European Union citizens, with a strong input on the rights and freedoms of people and in the establishment of rules for the processing of personal data. OpenEHR is a standard that embodies many principles of interoperable and secure software for electronic health records. This work aims to understand to what extent the openEHR standard can be considered a solution for the requirements needed by GDPR. A list of requirements for a Hospital Information Systems (HIS) compliant with GDPR and an identification of openEHR specifications was made. The requirements were categorized and compared with the specifications. The requirements identified for the systems were matched with the openEHR specifications, which result in 16 requirements matched with openEHR. All the specifications identified matched at least one requirement. OpenEHR is a solution for the development of HIS that reinforce privacy and personal data protection, ensuring that they are contemplated in the system development. The institutions can secure that their Eletronic Health Record are compliant with GDPR while safeguarding the medical data quality and, as a result, the healthcare delivery.

Benefits, challenges and impact of teleconsultation - a literature review.

Teleconsultation involves the use of technology so that the medical professionals and patients can interact with each other bringing health to where ever it is needed. Although it has been demonstrated to be feasible and effective its sustainability remains an important question. This paper presents the results of a literature review on teleconsultation, based on the Portuguese context. Although Portugal has some successful projects, a national or international conjoint effort would be more fruitful. Technologically it gets lets costly to provide teleconsultation, as pervasive computing grows. The gap of benefits between teleconsultation and regular consultation will diminish as patients grow fonder into technology.The economic value of this type of consultation remains a difficult subject, so a small budget economic analysis, based on a break-even method, is suggested. This analysis conducted on Finland shows that teleconsultation can be cost-effective.