Sensitive medication data transfer

Completed project. Both regular and emergency hospitalization of patients is always associated with the same dilemma: The available information on the current diagnosis, the therapeutic treatment started or the patient’s medical history is not sufficient.

The information basis to administer the required or already prescribed medication to the patient is sparse:

• Different slips of paper with medication information from, e.g., a general practitioner, retirement home, care center, or other hospitals;
• Medicines, packages, package inserts or the like, brought by the patient;
• Verbal information from the patient that may strongly depend on the cognitive condition of the patient.

Now the medical staff or the attending physicians have to conduct cumbersome research to collect the required information. If any information sources are available at all, they are often unreliable, error-prone, and incomplete. Within the framework of the research project supported by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, we networked the Klinikum Fürth hospital and the Doctors’ Association of Middle Franconia for the mutual transfer of medication data. The system has already been used in a follow-up project, MetropolMediplan 2016 for trial and further development of the national medication plan in one of the three model regions across Germany.