Project overview
The aim of the NCPeH ter project is to enable the cross-border exchange of new documents via the MyHealth@EU platform. In particular, the project focuses on the exchange of lab results, medical imaging reports and hospital discharge letter, either as country A, country of affiliation, or country B, country of treatment.
The project Expansion of Myhealth@EU intends to intervene within the macro-objective of supporting the development of the EHDS and the use of health data for health care, increasing the coverage of cross – border services and making them available at a higher share of the European population. Specifically, it aims to establish an appropriate national governance structure to ensure the dissemination and supply of cross-border services by monitoring the data resulting from the tests at national and international level; in addition to offering support to users and Member States already in operation, the activity aims to increase awareness between citizens and socio-health operators regarding the supply of cross-border services of digital health and organizing educational awareness and training initiatives, at national, regional and territorial level, designing a new national implementation plan and implementing actions for the supply of services according to the eHDSI operational framework.
Through fundamental compliance check activities with respect to eHDSI requirements in parallel to the execution of tests in the production environment, the proposed activities intend to provide cross-border electronic health services based on the eHDSI operational framework, organize the maintenance of the resources necessary for the provision of cross-border services, as well as management and mitigation and risk, develop a sustainability plan and a post strategy built on the mapping and analysis of national/regional and EU structures as well as on the analysis of the stakeholders involved.
Background
The project ITA NCPeH Ter is part of the project line started in 2017 which anticipated the implementation of the services envisaged in the MyHealth@EU framework, the digital healthcare infrastructure ensuring in Europe the interoperable exchange of health data between EU countries and consequently guaranteeing continuity of care, which in turn is part of a broader framework that begins from Directive 2011/24/EU, aimed at ensuring the continuity of cross-border care for European citizens and allowing Member States to exchange health data in a secure, efficient and interoperable way. This framework has been further developed and strengthened by the Regulation on the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which aims to create an interoperable and secure ecosystem for health data at European level, facilitating access to data for citizens and promoting research and innovation. The project Deployment of generic cross border ehealth services in Italy (funded by the CEF 2015 programme), conducted by an entirely Italian partnership, envisaged a specific initiative for the creation of a National Contact Point for eHealth (NCPeH), aimed at ensuring interoperability services for the cross-border exchange of health data and documents, in particular for information relating to the Patient Summary and ePrescription, and which constituted the basis for the definition of the national technical infrastructure for enabling the cross-border exchange of data and documents in accordance with the provisions of the eHN and according to the guidelines approved within it.
The DGSISS (General Directorate for Digitalization, Health Information System and Statistics) of the Ministry of Health was awarded the aforementioned project in a consortium with AgID and Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna Regions, identified for their already underway experimentation of solutions for interregional interoperability, and for interoperability with the national infrastructure for the Electronic Health Record designed by AgID.
To follow up on the developments of the project Deployment of generic cross border ehealth services in Italy, a new proposal was presented in February 2022 concerning the regulation and implementation of the exchange of health data relating to the Patient Summary and ePrescription for Country B services (country of treatment of the patient). The project Extension of National Contact Point for eHealth in Italy (ITA NCPeH Plus) was launched in December 2022 and brings together a consortium composed of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, AgID, the Regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Calabria and the three territorial agencies ARIA, Azienda Zero and Lepida Scpa.
The project Expansion of MyHealth@EU in Italy to provide new cross-border health services (ITA NCPeH Ter), launched in June 2024 with a consortium that largely recalls that of Ita NCPeH Plus with the addition of the National Agency for Regional Health Services (AGE.NA.S.) and the Department for Digital Transformation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (DTD), intends to increase the coverage of cross-border services by making them available to a higher level to the European population. Specifically, this project aims to establish an appropriate national governance structure to ensure the dissemination and provision of cross-border services through data monitoring.