EDM – further digital documents available to doctors and patients will speed up treatment and improve safety

As part of the funding, the e-Health Center is developing digital versions of nine new medical documents thanks to support from the National Reconstruction Plan. Electronic Medical Documentation is not only an improvement in the work of medical personnel, but also greater safety, faster diagnosis and easier access to information for patients.

Poland is one of the European leaders in healthcare digitalization. The ranking prepared by the European Commission confirms that the level of digitalization of the medical system in our country is among the European leaders. The common use of solutions such as the Internet Patient Account , e-prescription or e-referral is of key importance. But this is only the beginning - the intensive development of Electronic Medical Documentation, or EDM, is ongoing - more digital documents available to doctors and patients are becoming the standard.

New digital documents are being created as part of projects implemented by the e-Health Center (CeZ), financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO). KPO is a nationwide modernization program that focuses on accelerating digitalization and improving the quality of medical services in the area of ​​health. With the support of KPO, CeZ is creating digital versions of nine key documents that will facilitate diagnosis, treatment and the transfer of information between medical facilities, as well as providing patients with access to their treatment history.

The digitalization covers, among others, such important documents as the oncological diagnostic and treatment card (e-DILO), oncological treatment plan, cardiology care card (e-KOK), medical rescue card or documents from the scope of occupational medicine. There will also be a Patient Summary , i.e. the patient's electronic health card - a shortened description of the most important information about the state of health, necessary, for example, in emergency situations. These documents are created in the HL7 CDA standard - this means that they will be legible and possible to exchange between various IT systems in healthcare.

The first of the new documents have already been implemented and are functioning in the healthcare system. These are digital versions of the results of histopathological and cytological tests – key in cancer diagnostics. Transferring them to Electronic Medical Records means that medical facilities must maintain them exclusively in digital form. Thanks to this, the results reach doctors faster, which allows treatment to start earlier, and patients can easily view them on their Online Patient Account .

The next important step will be to implement a digital medical rescue card – a document completed by medical rescue teams. It contains, among other things, a description of the patient's condition, interventions undertaken and health threats identified by paramedics. This is an extremely important element of continuity of care, which allows doctors in hospitals to quickly familiarize themselves with the history of a sudden event. Work is also underway on an electronic equivalent of the Medical Air Rescue team card – the data will be consistent and available immediately after the patient is transferred to the hospital.

Thanks to the next digital EDM documents, doctors gain quick access to patients' medical data, which shortens the reaction time and increases the accuracy of therapeutic decisions. Patients can track their treatment history in one place and no longer have to store paper results or photocopy documents between visits. EDM - the next digital documents available to doctors and patients is not only a technological advance, but a specific improvement in the quality of healthcare, safety and patient comfort.

The development of Electronic Medical Records is not a temporary project, but a long-term process that requires the cooperation of many institutions, including doctors, medical computer scientists, paramedics and public administration. Thanks to projects such as those implemented by the e-Health Center and supported by the KPO , the digitization of healthcare is becoming the foundation of a modern, more accessible and effective health system.