Upgraded eHealth system

One of the largest complex information systems in Lithuania — eHealth, which has been in operation for a decade — was upgraded on 8 November. After the upgrade, the system has been stabilised and is now available for use by both healthcare professionals and the general public.

“For medical professionals, the upgraded eHealth system makes it easier and quicker to find relevant information about a patient’s health. It also provides a more convenient way to manage health data electronically, thanks to the structuring of newly created datasets and modernised datasets, which were created previously. This enables the provision of higher-quality services to patients. Patients, in turn, can see more structured data about their health,” said Daniel Naumovas, Vice-Minister of Health.

The Vice-Minister thanks the eHealth users for their understanding and patience in the face of slowdowns and inconveniences in connecting to and using the system after the implementation of upgrades. The upgrades were large-scale and were carried out with the active use of the eHealth system, which required additional efforts to stabilise its operation. After the main system operator, the Centre of Registries, rectified the problems, the system is now stable.

The upgraded eHealth system is also referred to by specialists as the new version of eHealth, as several new subsystems have been created and existing ones have been modernised. Many additional features have also been included. The technological implementation of the system innovations was carried out by the main system operator, the Centre of Registers.

Those working directly with the eHealth portal saw changes from the date of implementation in the production environment, while those working with internal information systems will see the upgrades depending on the readiness of their system. Health care facilities should complete all changes to their systems by May of next year.

Professionals can familiarise themselves with the new functionalities of eHealth system through training recordings and educational materials, which are available here: eHealth Portal/Modernised ESPBI IS Instructions.

 

Modernised e-Prescription subsystem

For healthcare professionals, eHealth offers the possibility to adjust prescriptions. New classifications will also make prescription issue easier, providing real-time information on medicine supply disruptions, changes in reimbursement conditions for reimbursable medicines and reimbursable medical aids (MAs), etc. 

The possibility to dispense/sell medicines and reimbursable MAs in partial quantities will make it easier both for pharmacists, when a pharmacy does not have the full quantity a patient needs, and for the patients, who will not have to buy the full quantity of the prescription. 

eHealth plans to provide more educational material for all users, for example on the safety of medicinal products. There is an opportunity to report a suspected adverse reaction to a medicinal product.

Read more about the updates to the e-Prescription subsystem HERE

 

Several new subsystems have been developed

Earlier, in October, a laboratory testing subsystem and a single standard for the exchange of laboratory test data were introduced. On 8 November, the Pregnancy, Maternity and Newborn (PMN) subsystem was launched, which will manage all PMN health data at national level. This will optimise processes, reduce the number of issued documents, and make it easier for doctors to find detailed information about a patient’s health.

For professionals providing home care services, a function has been developed allowing them to fill in a questionnaire to identify the need for and prescribe outpatient home care services. The aim is to manage data on nursing services at home at the national level. 

 

More data in the eHealth system

The eHealth system will handle more clinical data related to mental health, while ensuring their protection and anonymity, as only certain professionals will be able to access it. 

The system will handle data on the first detection of oncological or infectious diseases. This will reduce technical work for personal health care institutions, as the same data will no longer need to be submitted to several institutions, but will instead be entered into the eHealth system. Professionals will also be able to see data on ambulance calls provided by the Ambulance Service.

 

Simplified access to up-to-date patient health data

To improve the provision of clinical data, datasets currently managed in the eHealth system have been revised: outpatient visit descriptions, discharge reports, referrals etc. Data have been restructured and more classifiers have been introduced.

In line with EU recommendations, the patient diagnosis model has been refined and extended to allow seamless data exchange between EU countries in the future. In the upgraded system, a diagnosis has a cycle: from suspicion of a diagnosis to confirmation or denial of the diagnosis, to the patient’s recovery or to the denial of the diagnosis. In the patient’s diagnosis list, the doctor will see the status of the diagnosis (active / denied / chronic / resolved / cancelled). The new model will save the doctor’s time by eliminating the need to look up the diagnosis on the outpatient visit form, and by presenting information about the patient’s illness in a clearer and more structured way. 

Information about the patient’s allergies is displayed next to the patient’s health data. The allergy field provides clarity to informing the specialist about potential risks ranging from skin rashes to anaphylaxis, when prescribing medication, before elective surgery, etc.

These changes will simplify and speed up access for healthcare professionals to the most relevant patient health data.

 

eHealth volumes have increased hundreds of times

The Central eHealth System was set up in 2015. Since that time, data uploads to the system have increased more than 300-fold: from just over 340,000 in the first year to 109 million health records by 2024. 

The upgrade, therefore, involved a major modernisation of all existing components, a review of business processes, speeding up data delivery and retrieval, and the introduction of a new generation of service stations.