The Electronic Health Record or, much more simply, ESFis a digital tool that collects and organizes data and documents relating to the health of every citizen, allowing centralized and secure access to one’s medical history. Think of the ESF as a personal repository that not only makes it easier to track your health information, but also promotes more effective, personalized care. Through the ESF it is possible to quickly consult reports, medical prescriptions, vaccinations and other documents generated by public and private healthcare facilities, guaranteeing a complete and always accessible vision of your treatment path. The File has been automatically active since 2020 and access to its data by third parties requires the consent of the patient, who can revoke it at any time.
What is the usefulness of the Electronic Health Record
As you can well imagine, a digital archive that collects information generated by present and past clinical events, which allows you to store health information of all types, can be very useful. This File can be updated by both public and private structures (the latter can do so from 19 May 2020) and allows all citizens to easily access your health documents. One of the most relevant elements of the File is the so-called summary health profilealso known as “patient summary”drawn up by general practitioners and paediatricians to provide an immediate overview of the patient’s clinical history. This document facilitates the work of healthcare personnel, especially in emergency situations.
The ESF serves multiple purposes: from treatment and prevention to scientific research and international prophylaxis. Consent for consultation must be provided only once and can be revoked at any time. Clearly, the healthcare service is always guaranteed, even if you choose not to allow access to the File. Furthermore, the ESF is designed to be interoperable between the Regionsallowing access to the data even when the documents were generated by structures located in various areas of the Peninsula.
Is the Electronic Health Record safe?
The information contained in the ESF is protected by strict privacy regulations and healthcare personnel can access it only to the extent necessary for treatment. Health institutions, however, can consult data pseudonymized for statistical analysis and treatment planning. Just to be clear, pseudonymisation consists in the replacement of unequivocally identifying data (for example name and surname) with indirectly identifying data and should not be confused with data anonymisation which, however, makes it impossible to trace the identity of a person.
The File can be integrated with additional personal information, thanks to the section called “Personal notebook”where it is possible to enter data from medical devices or wearables (smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart rings, and similar).
They exist precise restrictions on who can access the data included in the ESF: neither employers, insurance companies or other external parties can consult the data. It is also possible redact specific documents. In this regard, the Privacy Guarantor reported:
The interested party has the right to request the blackening of health and social-health data and documents both before the ESF is supplied and subsequently. (…) The obscured data and documents may be consulted exclusively by the interested party and by the owners who generated the aforementioned documents.
Interestingly, the data relating to particularly sensitive situations (for example interruptions of pregnancy or use of substances) are already obscured and are visible only to the holders of their ESF.
What will change with ESF 2.0
The Ministry of Health is working on the introduction of the so-called ESF 2.0which it should become fully operational in 2026and which should achieve the objective of making the system a single channel for accessing National Health Service services. This is to be able to offer increasingly personalized support to both patients and healthcare professionals. In particular, ESF 2.0 has the following objectives:
- Make the Health Record the single and exclusive access point for all citizens to NHS servicesregardless of which region you belong to.
- Transforming the Health Record into a true ecosystem of data-based services, so as to enable healthcare professionals to carry out personalized diagnoses and treatments to their patients.
- Supply support for healthcare facilities and institutions who, thanks to the clinical information present in the Health Record, will be able to carry out accurate analyzes of clinical data while improving the provision of healthcare services.
