eHealth: Belgian approach with specific attention to research support

27/05/2014

Frank RobbenGeneral manager of the eHealth platformQuai de Willebroeck 38B-1000 BrusselsE-mail: Frank.Robben@ehealth.fgov.beWebsite eHealth platform https://www.ehealth.fgov.bePersonal website: www.frankrobben.be

Overview

• overview of the eHealth platform

• multidisciplinary data sharing and value-added services in the pharmaceutical sector

• privacy legislation - processing of health data for research purposes

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Overall objectives of the eHealth platform

• how?– through a well-organised, mutual electronic service and information

exchange between all actors in health care– by providing the necessary guarantees with regard to information security,

privacy protection and professional secrecy

• what?– optimisation of health care quality and continuity – optimisation of patient safety– reduction of administrative burden for all actors in health care– thorough support of health care policy and research

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eHealth platform In practice

The patient consults his doctor

Administrative advantages

Possibility to register therapeutic relationships and informed consent

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Medical advantage

s

eHealth platform In practice

Laboratory results

Look up medical history through the

SumEHR

Medication schedule

Online advice and guidelines

Electronic medical referral form

Electronic prescriptions

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Adminis-trative

advantages

eHealth platform In practice

Tarification,billing

Create and send

certificates

Update SumEHR, medication schedule, ...

Send a report to the GMF owner

Registrations

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Basic servicesBasic serviceseHealtheHealth platform platform

Network

Basic architecture

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Patients, health care providersPatients, health care providersand health care institutionsand health care institutions

VASVAS VASVASVASVASSuppliers

Users

Overall Overall objectives of objectives of the the eHealtheHealth

platformplatform

Health portalHealth portalAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVS Software Software

health care health care institutioninstitutionAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVS

MyCareNetMyCareNetAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVS

Software Software health care health care

providerproviderAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSSite NIHDISite NIHDIAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVSAVS

VASVASVASVASVASVAS

7

10 missions

1. development of a vision and a strategy with regard to eHealth

2. organisation of collaboration between other government agencies charged with coordinating electronic services

3. acting as a key driver for the necessary changes in order to carry out the vision and strategy with regard to eHealth

4. establishing the functional and technical norms, standards and specifications and the basic ICT architecture

5. registration of software for management of electronic patient files

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10 missions

6.creation, development and management of a cooperative platform for safe electronic data exchange with the corresponding basic services

7.to agree on task division and quality standards with regard to information storage, and to verify whether these standards are complied with

8.as an independent trusted third party (TTP), being in charge of the coding and anonymisation of personal health data for the benefit of specific agencies, as established by law, in order to support scientific research and policy

9.promoting and coordinating the development of programs and projects

10.managing and coordinating the ICT aspects of data exchange within the framework of electronic patient files and electronic medical prescriptions

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10 basic services

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1. integrated user and access management2. orchestration of electronic subprocesses3. portal environment (https://www.ehealth.fgov.be)4. logging management5. system for end-to-end encryption6. personal electronic mailbox for each health care provider (eHealthBox)7. timestamping8. coding and anonymisation9. consultation of the National Register and of the Crossroads Bank

Registers10. reference directory (metahub)

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Value-added services

65 value-added services in production 40 value-added services under study

Some general examples of value-added services :• registration in and consultation of the Cancer registry, the registry of hip and knee

prostheses (Orthopride), the registries of care provided for heart implants (Qermid), the shared electronic arthritis file, including electronic processes for the reimbursement of anti-TNF medication (Safe)

• PROCARE RX allows radiologists to upload and send anonymous X-rays and information to experts for review or a second opinion

• reports on MUG interventions• Resident Assessment Instrument (BelRAI)• electronic medical card for people without documents (eCarmed)• consultation of living wills regarding euthanasia• electronic registration and consultation of the medical evaluation of disabled people• electronic birth registration – eBirth

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Cornerstone: Multidisciplinary data sharing

1. data transmission

– snapshot of the data

– sender chooses recipient

– sender is responsible for sending the data only to recipients who are entitled to have access to these data

2. data sharing

– evolutive data

– the source does not know in advance who will consult the data (e.g. on-call GP)

– necessity of clarifying which people are entitled to have access to the data

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Data transfer: eHealthBox:

• sending of messages to "actors in health care"– based on

• national Register number• NIHDI number• CBE number

– through web application or integrated into the medical file– with (or without) encryption based on eHealth certificates/ eHealth keys– other functionalities

• receipt, publication and reading confirmation• reply & forward• check multiple mailboxes• priority level• auto delete

– an average of 2.4 million messages sent per month to the eHealthBox (multiple recipients)

– an average of 2.2 million messages downloaded per month through the eHealthBox

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eHealthBox: currently

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eHealthBox: in future

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Multidisciplinary data sharing

1. data from hospitals– sharing of documents between hospitals and doctors– “hubs and metahub system”

2. extramural data– sharing of structured data between first-line health care providers and other

extramural health care providers– “extramural vaults”– shared pharmaceutical file

3. coupled and interoperable– standards– informed consent– therapeutic relationship/ health care relationship

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Hubs & Metahub system: Creation of the "hubs"

5 hubs

3 technical implementations

98 % of Belgian hospitals (have signed the 2012 protocol)

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Hub-metahub: currently

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Hub-metahub: in future

A

CB

1: Where can we find data?

3. Retrieve data from hub A

3: Retrieve data from hub C

4:All data available

2: In hub A and C

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Extramural data 1/2

• supporting the development of data exchange platforms for all sorts of extramural health care providers (GPs, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, home nurses, dietitians, psychologists, ...)

– in cooperation with Communities (first-line health care conference in Flanders, the Intermed initiative in Wallonia)

– for the disclosure of data via the hub/metahub system between local information systems of extramural health care providers and between these systems and the information systems of health care/welfare organizations

– for the interaction with extramural vaults awaiting development

– by reusing the basic services of the eHealth platform and by making use of several achievements of the developed data sharing platform between hospitals and GPs/doctors

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Extramural data 2/2

A

C

B

Inter-Med

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Data sharing

• Each actor keeps their own file up to date

• However, they can decide to share parts of the file with other actors

• Examples:

• medication schedule

• SUMEHR

• parameters

• journal

• …

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Access for health care providers

• having a "health care relationship"

• depending on their role

No access for

• IT administrators, hoster,..

• eHealth platform

• authorities

without the active cooperation of the owner of the 2nd key

VaultGovernance Archiving Management

Vault data

Authentication ... Authorisation

Data quality

EncryptionDecryption Authentication

Vault connector

Treshold decryptieTrus

ted

3rd

part

y

2 1.

Vaul

t cor

e

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Shared pharmaceutical file

Informed consent & therapeutic relationship

• content of informed consent– for registration in the reference directory (as required by the eHealth law)– for the electronic exchange of health data between health care providers

within the framework of patient health care, as long as the following conditions are met:

• approval by the Sectoral Committee• therapeutic relationship required• only relevant data• the patient decides, in consultation with the health care provider, which data will be

shared • health care providers may be excluded by name • possibility of a posteriori verification of the granted access • consent may be revoked at any given time

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• registration of informed consent– patient is informed about the system– specific procedure approved by the Board of Directors and the Sectoral

Committee– consent can be registered through eHealth consent

• either by the concerned person themselves• or by a doctor, a pharmacist, a hospital or a health insurance fund

– https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/fr/prestataires-de-soins/services-en-ligne/ehealthconsent

• therapeutic relationship– only health care providers who have a therapeutic relationship with the

patient (1) can access the information they need to perform their task (2)• (1) proof of therapeutic relationship determines which patient the health care

provider has access to • (2) role determines which type of data the health care provider has access to

Informed consent & therapeutic relationship

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Value-added services

• some specific examples of value-added services in the pharmaceutical sector :

– simplification of Chapter IV requests: optimized electronic processes to obtain access to reimbursement of certain healthcare costs: complex programme with several stakeholders

– system for electronic prescriptions for pharmaceutical products

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Chapter IV requests: former paper flow

A couple of days

A couple of days

A couple of

days

After many daysSickness fundmedical advisor

Prescriber

Pharmacy

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Chapter IV requests: currently

A few seconds

A few seconds

Prescriber

Sickness fundmedical advisor

A few seconds

Pharmacy

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Recip-E: currently

Recip-E: in future

DoctorSoftware

eHealth platform Recip-eCentral System

eHealth platform Pharmacist

Software

Recip-EPatient Portal

Paper prescription

Paper prescription

Recip

-e M

od

ule

Recip

-e M

od

ule

MyCareNetservices

eHealth platform

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Privacy Legislation

• European Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data

• Transposition in Belgium :– Act of 8 December 1992 on the protection of privacy in relation to the

processing of personal data (hereafter 'Privacy Act')– Royal Decree of 13 February 2001 implementing the Act of 1992 on the

protection of privacy in relation to the processing of personal data

Processing of health data for research purposes

• qualitative support of health care policy and health care research can only be based on authentic sources complying with quality and availability requirements

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Processing of health data for research purposes

Article 8 Directive / Article 7 Privacy Act :

• prohibition to process health-related data

• exceptions:– explicit (written) consent of the data subject– exemptions of substantial public interest laid down by national law or decision

of supervisory authority and subject to provision of suitable safeguards:• necessary for the promotion and protection of public health, including medical

screening of the population • obligation by or by virtue of a law, decree or ordinance for reasons of important

public interest• necessary for scientific research

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Further processing of health data for research purposes

• proportionality • cascade: anonymous data, encoded personal data, non-encoded personal

data– encoding can be carried out by:

• controller (of initial processing) or processor appointed by him• independent intermediary organization (compulsory in case data are obtained from

multiple controllers)

• transparency - duty to inform - consent– non-encoded personal (health) data:

• in principle– duty to inform with regard to data source– explicit consent (opt in) necessary

• except for:– impossibility or disproportionate effort– data disclosed by data subject

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Further processing of health data for research purposes

• transparency - duty to inform - consent– encoded personal (health) data

• in principle:– duty to inform with regard to data source– right to object (opt out)

• except for:– impossibility or disproportionate effort– intermediary organization in charge of encoding is administrative government in charge of

encoding by law

• coding and anonymization (basic service of the eHealth platform)– makes it possible to hide the identity of individuals behind a code, so that the

useful data of these individuals can be used without infringing on their privacy– makes it possible to anonymize data by replacing patients’ detailed

characteristics with generalised characteristics. These encoded or anonymised data preserve their usefulness, but without allowing the direct or indirect identification of the person

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Trusted Third Party (TTP)

• Use Case :

A university wants to study the impact of a medical treatment on patients by crossing medical informations from multiple sources (hospitals, cancer registry, insurance, …)

Most of these medical information is confidential and highly sensitive

Warranty must be provided that privacy, professional secrecy and patient rights are not violated when medical data are communicated

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Trusted Third Party (TTP)

• Solution :

– eHealth platform assumes the role of « trusted third party » (go-between organization) between instances identified by the law

– eHealth platform, by coding patient ID’s such as SSIN (Social Security Inscription Number), ensures that a patient cannot be identified directly or indirectly and thus that privacy, medical secret and patient rights are well respected

– this role is executed under the supervision of a Sectoral Committee

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In practice

eHealth platform doesn’t perform consolidation or small cell risk analysis > this role must be assigned to a Data Manager

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Data Source 1

eHealth(coding/coupling)

Investigator

Data Source 2

1. ID-MD1

Data Manager(consolidation)

3. IDcoded-MD1-MD2

2. ID-MD2

4. IDcoded-consolidatedMD

By this way •only eHealth platform can relate patientID’s with the code and separation between data sources and researchers is guaranteed•reidentification of a patient can thus only be performed via eHealth platform•medical data (=MD) must normally be encrypted by the source > by this way eHealth platform has only access to the patientID •in most cases, this process can be automated by using the eHealthBox

Researcher

Useful links

• all information concerning eHealth platform TTP service is available at the eHealth portal

https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/fr/support/services-de-base/codage-et-anonymisation (FR)

https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/nl/support/basisdiensten/codering-en-anonimisering (NL)

• information requests can be submitted by mail at the address: TTP@ehealth.fgov.be

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THANK YOU!

Questions?

Frank.Robben@ehealth.fgov.be

@FrRobben

https://www.ehealth.fgov.behttp://www.ksz.fgov.be/http://www.frankrobben.be

27/05/2014