Accreditationand Quality Labellingof EHRs in EuropeThe role of ProRec centresand the EUROREC Institute
Dr. François MENNERAT
Secretary General
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2005-04-14
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Fostering a harmonised implementationof high quality EHR systems
•Requires promotion, awareness and educationalactions
•useful results of the PROREC initiative
–a Support Action in the 4th Framework Programme
–following the recommendations of the MEDIRECConcerted Action of the 3rd Framework Programme
•focusing on the promotion strategy for high qualityEHRs
•the implementation of a quality labelling process hasalways been an explicit part of the mission assignedto the national ProRec centres
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Promotion strategy for high qualityEuropean Health Records
"ProRec" stands for
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•Registered non-for-profit organisations
•Established at the national level
•Gathering in a balanced way
–solution providers
–users
•Developing contacts with all otherstakeholders (public authorities, etc.)
ProRec centres
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Objectives of ProRec centres
•Identify, try and help solve
•issues opposing or slowing down
•the process of widely implementing and using
•high quality EHRs
–secure, comprehensive, communicable, interoperable
•at the national level,as well as throughout Europe
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Rationale behind ProRec centres
•Take account of local specificity
•Act at ground level ("Bottom-Up")
–think European (the mobile citizen, the market),
–act locally (the needs)
•Bring together and involve field actors:
–those who actually use EHRs as their professionaltool,
–together with those who provide the expectedsolutions
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Established
Setting up
Mature contacts
First contacts
The network of ProRec centres
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Fostering a harmonised implementationof high quality EHR systems
•In a second phase, the issue has beenleveraged at EU level through thecreation of the EuroRec Institute
•formed as a consequence of theWIDENET project
–an Accompanying Measure under the 5thFramework Programme
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The EuroRec Institute
•The European Institute for Health Records
•A non-for-profit organisation
•Founded in 2002 by the first four ProRec centres(Belgium, Spain, France, and Bulgaria)
•Developing activities at the European level(principle of subsidiarity)
•Bound to become self-sustainable
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Fostering a harmonised implementationof high quality EHR systems
•In a third phase, the EuroRec Institutenow aims at becoming one of the majorplayers in the world for certification ofEHR systems
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Definitions
•electronic health record (EHR)
–repository of information regarding the health of asubject of care, in computer processable form
ISO TR 20514:2004 "Health Informatics -EHR Definition, Scope, & Context"
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Definitions
•EHR system
–set of components that form the mechanism bywhich electronic health records are created, used,stored, and retrieved
•Note:It includes people, data, rules and procedures,processing and storage devices, andcommunication and support facilities.
ISO TR 20514:2004 "Health Informatics -EHR Definition, Scope, & Context"
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•sets ambitious objectives to furtherdeploy efficient eHealth systems at anational and regional level
•High quality Electronic Health Recordsystems (EHRs) acknowledged as a keyto efficient eHealth services
The e-Europe Action plan
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•by helping the customers
–i.e. the end users, the purchasers, and thedecision makers
•find the relevant suppliers to fulfil theirexpectations
•by offering them access to an information
–relevant
–neutral, honest, based on explicit criteria
–up-to-date
A need to comfort the market
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•Several Member States have initiatedaccreditation schemes for eHealthsystems
–Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, theNetherlands, etc.
•EHR systems a corner stone for eHealthsystems
Existing national initiatives
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•These EHRs quality labelling and certificationschemes differ
–in their scope
–by the legal framework under which they operate
–in their policies
–in their organisation
–in the choice of quality conformance criteria forbenchmarking
–in their testing procedures
–etc.
Existing national initiatives
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•to be countered by harmonisationefforts as soon as possible
•Therefore an urgent need to build onthe work achieved so far
•and launch a European system forquality labelling and certification of EHRsystems
A risk of further fragmenting themarket
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•General objective
–create an efficient, credible and sustainablemechanism
•Core objectives
–define a Model with harmonised guidelines andprocedures
–incorporate the formal test plans into aBenchmarking Process Manual
Quality labelling and certificationof EHR Systems in Europe
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•Fully worked out Business Plan
•State of the Art Report on existing EHRs Certificationschemes
•Labelling Terminology and Functional Profiles forclassification of EHRs to be certified; ModelCertification Guidelines and Procedures
•Benchmarking Services Manual for EHRs QualityLabelling and Certification
•Inventory of Resources for EHR Interoperability
–registers of Quality Conformance Criteria, EHR-Archetypes, XML schemes, Health Coding Systems, andrelevant EHR Standards
Quality labelling and certificationof EHR Systems in Europe
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General principles
•Apply the "subsidiarity principle"
•Build on national experiences (Belgium, Ireland, etc.)
•Involve heavily national ProRec centres (and othercontributors)
•Support new national initiatives
•European co-ordination
•Feasibility study granted by DG -Entr (about to start)
•Further support from the European Commission (DG-Entr, and DG-InfSo)
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–The EuroRec Institute is the overarching networkof national ProRec centres
–Its main mission being to promote high qualityElectronic Health Record systems (EHRs)throughout Europe
•The EuroRec Institute will act as the co-ordinator of the process for quality labellingand certification
•The network of ProRec centres, wherein awide variety of stakeholders are involved, willserve as an operational platform
Organisational pattern
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•Co-ordination with healthcare authoritiesthrough a collaboration with the eHealth ERAconsortiumand its European Health Care Authorities (HCA) /Ministries groups
•Both platforms (EuroRec and eHealth ERA)will assure the necessary bottom-up and top-down approaches for the adequateassessment of needs and for the optimalchoice of methods
Organisational pattern
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Conclusion
•The EuroRec Institute is now waiting for thegreen light
•The process is expected to start this year
•All stakeholders are already invited toprepare their useful contributions
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