What is the best way for health care providers to deal with digital patient data?
Patients increasingly have more options when it comes to sharing their data with medical professionals. What does that mean for health care providers? Read on for our recommendations.
With the Compassana Med Cockpit, health care providers can view patients' data such as medical reports, medication lists and lab test results after obtaining their consent. Feedback from our partners santé24 and Medbase, as well as from lawyers, was taken into account during its development to ensure that the product is user-friendly and fully compliant with legal requirements. It resulted in the following recommendations:
1. As a doctor, do I have to consider all of the information and documents shared with me in Compassana Med Cockpit?
If medical professionals can view their patients' data using Compassana Med Cockpit, then both can share the same view of the digital medical data. It remains part of the doctor's duty of care to take this information into account in the patient's treatment, as deemed medically appropriate in each specific case.
2. What happens if I have overlooked an important and specific piece of information?
The extent of a doctor's duty of care varies depending on the specific circumstances of the case. What is important is the information available at the time of treatment and advances in medical research, as well as taking into account all the indications that arise from talking to the patient. This applies in general to both telemedicine and in-person medical care in the doctor’s practice or hospital.
3. Do all digital documents available have to be studied?
Ideally, you should check the information added over the previous six to eight weeks. Depending on the medical condition, symptoms and previous treatment, older data may also be helpful.
4. Are patients obliged to provide me with relevant information about their health?
Patients cannot simply upload data and assume that everything in their digital account has already been read and studied. The success of any treatment depends heavily on patients providing relevant and up-to-date information of their own accord and actively participating in discussions with their health care providers.
5. How do patients know about their obligation to contribute?
Users of the Compassana app are actively reminded in the terms of use of this obligation to contribute, which is in their own interest. This is because it is only with the active participation of the patient that a complete picture of their overall health can be obtained, which in turn helps to ensure the success of the treatment. The obligation to contribute should be brought to the patient's attention during a personal consultation and the meaning of this should be explained to them.
6. What happens if a patient deletes a document after a consultation?
Making patient information available digitally via Compassana does not alter the doctor's obligation to document and exercise due care, nor does it affect the use of the doctor's own tools and information systems already in place for this purpose. Access history is logged and documented in such a way that it can be traced.
These recommendations were developed while the Compassana Med Cockpit was being developed and reflect the current legal situation and technological status. Every medical organisation and all service providers can and should define their own in-house recommendations.
We therefore reserve the right to make amendments and improvements and look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions.
Send us a message using the contact form or by e-mail to: info@compassana.ch.
