Newsletter on the progress of the project Design and Implementation of the National eHealth Interoperability Framework (NeHIF) - September 2020
09/09/2020
The project for the design and implementation of the National eHealth Interoperability Framework -with the support of the European Union and European Commission’s DG REFORM- is currently up and running and within the timeframes set. It is noteworthy that, in such a short time, more than 20 working meetings (teleconferences) have been held so far, with the participation of about 25 experts in the field of eHealth, within Working Groups that were formed under the Decision of Mr. Ioannis Kotsiopoulos, Secretary General for Health Services, who closely monitors the progress of the project. In addition, knowledge transfer meetings have been held with other countries’ authorities and more specifically with Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, France, Italy and the United States.
For the first time in Greece, and so as to address the interoperability issues in the health sector, such a comprehensive effort is taking place in order to develop and adopt the national eHealth Interoperability Framework, through:
- Harmonizing the process of exchanging and using health data, by utilizing European and international best practices and recommendations, based on international standards.
- Supporting the universal adoption of the National Electronic Health Record.
- Facilitating the delivery of health and care services for both healthcare professionals and citizens, by encoding clinical documents.
The project has entered a key phase: based on the methodology followed, the first set of deliverables related to design principles, selected use case analysis, realization scenarios and governance requirements’ documentation, have already been released and the project has entered the phase where major software vendors through their associations (e.g. Federation of Hellenic ICT Enterprises, Association of Information Technology Companies of Northern Greece, Hellenic Health Informatics Association, Hellenic Association of Mobile Applications Companies, HL7 Hellas) are being strongly engaged in the process, along will all relevant key stakeholders. At the same time, training programs are taking place, to ensure that expert personnel of the Health Units are able to analyze their operational needs in matters of data exchange and interoperability of IT systems.
