 Essen pilots shared-care
records for breast-cancer treatments in Germany
The northwestern German State of North Rhine–Westphalia recently launched
a pilot for a sector-wide electronic healthcare record for patients with
breast cancer. Named mamma@kte.nrw, the pilot is being run in Essen,
beginning with the installation of an electronic shared-care record in a
breast clinic, 22 primary care practices, and four hospitals. Essen is one
of Germany’s largest industrial cities and a major centre for iron and steel
manufacture and coal mining. The clinic, primary care practices and
hospitals will all be linked over a special secure data network.
By January 2005, availability of the record is expected to have been
rolled out in the whole of the North Rhine–Westphalia, a state that includes
some of Germany’s largest cities, including regional capital Dusseldorf,
former federal capital Bonn, Aachen, Cologne, Dortmund and textile centre
Mönchengladbach. It is the most densely populated region of Europe, and one
of its oldest and most heavily industrialised regions.
North Rhine–Westphalia has many of the healthcare and socialcare problems
that are associated with long-established manufacturing areas. The region is
also the centre of German research, with nine universities including
Germany’s six largest, and the focus of its biotech and pharmaceutical
industries.
North Rhine-Westphalia State Health Secretary Birgit Fischer claimed that
mamma@kte.nrw represented a major step forward in improving delivery
of healthcare services to people with breast cancer throughout the state.
The pilot is part of a wider federal programme to target breast cancer
across the whole of Germany. Rollout across other German states is likely
from 2005. |
