UTI completed the implementation of the integrated IT system for the Electronic Health Record
The development of the DES system (DES – Dosarul Electronic de Sanatate, the Electronic Health Record) took one year, being the most complex software project in the health field ever implemented in Romania.
The aim of the DES is to improve the quality of medical services by integrating patients’ medical data in a unitary system, dynamically developed with the medical information and data inserted by medical service providers. By consistently presenting a consolidated patient clinical history, DES supports the accuracy and correctness of the medical decision based on information gathered from various sources, available on-line, yet confidential.
Thus, each patient has its own file that contains, first, all the medical data that already exists in the IT systems of the National Health Insurance Fund. The data is only available to the patient or to their legal representative, doctors only having access to the file after the patient’s agreement. For medical service providers, the data consolidated in the DES contributes substantially to the fast and coherent establishment of the diagnosis and the medical decision, thus ensuring an essential instrument for improving the quality of health services.
During the system trial stage, launched on April 4 2014, over 130.000 patient files were initialized, and more than 3.000 doctors and 50 hospitals connected to the DES.
From a technological point of view, the project is very complex, using state of the art technology and equipment, integrated in an enterprise-type architecture designed for a safe, reliable system.
The beneficiaries of this system, patients and doctors, will interact by means of a web application with a user-friendly, easy to use interface. The patients will be able to consult the DES by means of a web portal, while doctors can manage the information on file through a dedicated web portal or through the medical software that they have, only after the patient has agreed to it.
Data safety is guaranteed by the implemented IT security mechanisms, such as safe authentication based on digital certificates and security matrix, encryption of communication between the user and the central IT platform of the DES, permanent access control and audit, safe data storage.
“For the implementation of this project, extremely important for the computerization and progress of the Romanian medical system, we have integrated state of the art technologies in the IT&C field, our own as well as supplied by the largest producers in the field, in order to respond to all the operation, integration, real time data processing and information security requirements, and also in order to allow for the future expansion of the system,” declared Mihai Dincă, Technical Manager of UTI Grup.
DES is the first project of such complexity in Romania and among the few implemented at an European level in the health field, being a vital part of the CNAS (National Health Insurance Fund) service computerization strategy. The use of HL7 standards in modeling the DES software architecture builds up the premises of further system development by easy integration of similar medical IT systems and by interoperability with eHealth platforms available in the EU.
The project is co-funded through European funds and was awarded by public purchasing procedure.
