User:WKreutzer/Sandbox
The NETC@RDS initiative is devoted to establish new improved health care administration services for mobile citizens across the EU. The actual phase aims at deploying e-health services via the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) through a wide trans-European network simplifying health care access procedures.
NETC@RDS is funded under the eTEN programme of the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media).
The project main goals are:
- Providing reliable and interoperable solutions for the European Health Insurance Card electronification
- Enhancing interstate data exchange while using secure IT network software applications incorporating professional and personal smart cards with PKI and Digital Signature
- Contributing to mobility and skills convergent policy while improving health care access for mobile citizens
The NETC@RDS service for electronification of the EHIC serves three distinct processes:
- automated data capture for identification based on a common set of data elements
- on-line verification of entitlement rights via national portals, and
- minimal data provision which can contribute to subsequent back-office interstate-billing.
The specific content of the NETC@RDS service is predicated on the patient EHIC data, and verification data in the national health insurance databases. The specification of this data is provided by the European regulatory bodies.
The common area of interest is in mutual use and recognition of the pan-European standardised eEHIC as a means of validating entitlement to unplanned health care. In addition two other cases are included: optical recognition of existing EHIC cards, and data capture of an eEHIC identification data set, incorporated in a national e-ID from specific member states of the participating partners.
The NETC@RDS service is expected to be the crystallisation point for a future electronic EHIC on the pan-European level.
The partners of the NETC@RDS Consortium are the providers of the NETC@RDS Services, and include health care providers and health insurance agencies from 15 European countries. The consortium is composed of:
- Statutory health insurance or health fund organisations
- Technical and research institutions or standardisation bodies acting on behalf of the health insurance organisations
- Hospital and/or health professional associations
- Regional governments
The NETC@RDS service architecture is adopted from NETC@RDS market validation phases. It comprises a secure network of national service portals and databases, accessed from authorized and identified health professionals, certificates stored in various devices depending on the national scheme (e.g. workstation hard disks, health professional cards, USB keys).
The NETC@RDS project utilises state of the art technologies, directly suited to the requirements of the service in the following areas: web interfaces, end-to-end security over network of national service portals, data repositories and access point workstations, data protection, individual authentication and provision for back-end integration and auditing services. Each portal can be connected to one registry or multiple national/regional registries in order to provide an online checking service.
The infrastructure enables any health practitioner using the system to check that the card or any other presented proof of entitlement eligibility is still deemed valid by the issuing organisation. The validation level required is set by each issuer, and could also depend on the identification document tendered as proof of eligibility.