The Bulgarian Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund have begun piloting the issuing of electronic health cards, provided by ICW, in cooperation with Cisco and Kontrax.
An ICW spokesperson told E-Health Europe: “As of this month, 1,000 citizens from the town of Slivnitza and the village Aldomirovzi will receive their personal electronic health cards. Most of the cards will be handed out to chronically ill patients by their general practitioners (GPs) at their regular monthly doctor’s visits.”
Patients involved in the project were nominated by their physicians, based on their personal condition.
Each electronic health card is equipped with a microprocessor chip that stores the personal data of the patient, the issuer and card number as well as a security certificate.
With this information, the patient’s insurance status and his/her assignment to a general practitioner can automatically be checked in the project. In addition, e-prescriptions for medications covered by the Bulgarian health insurance fund will be recorded on the chip.
ICW and Kontrax have been working with GPs, physicians and pharmacists in the area since the pilot programme was launched in February.
All physician practices and pharmacies in Slivnitza, as well as the NHIF were connected with a reliable and secure private network. The network communication devices, firewalls and IP phone communications were provided by Cisco.
ICW say they have adapted its software solutions from those that are already used in Germany and Austria to the special requirements of the Bulgarian health system.
Their Software Development Kit (SDK) was used to enable the seamless and easy integration between the electronic health card system and the software in the GP offices and pharmacies.
Data will be exchanged between the specialised software ‘Hippocrates’ of Kontrax and the pharmacy information systems ‘Pharmacy Expert’ of Libra, and ‘Pharma Star’ of AS Systems.
Once the pilot has been successfully completed, a full evaluation will be held and prescriptions will be issued electronically to all patients. Cards will slowly be rolled out region by region with completion due by 2009.
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