PESCARA. Abruzzo residents who do not wish to have their health data prior to May 18, 2020 migrated to the national electronic health record must communicate their refusal by June 30. The notice was published two days ago, in plain sight, on the Abruzzo Region website.
The electronic health record (EHR) allows you to digitally archive and rapidly retrieve for medical treatment or prophylactic purposes, medical documentation, complete and in electronic format, on the past and present psychophysical health status of a citizen.
Public and private healthcare facilities, including the various regional healthcare services, had already begun, more than ten years ago, to digitally archive patients’ healthcare documentation: from the storage of analysis and diagnostic test reports, to the computerization of medical records, up to the systematic collection of medicine purchases to create a complete “pharmacological history” of the patient.
The electronic health record, however, was officially born in 2012 as a tool at the service of the patient, subject to his consent, who, instead of carrying with him, at each visit, all the documents of his clinical and pharmacological history, could choose to archive everything online, and allow various doctors and facilities access. But the large amount of archived health data constituted, and still constitutes today, an extraordinary heritage for the purposes of study and scientific research in the medical, biomedical and epidemiological fields, and for the governance of public health policies.
With Covid-19 this second purpose has acquired new relevance. So much so that on 19 May 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the Relaunch decree abolished the need for the patient’s consent for the ESF to be fed, which since then has started collecting information on health services and events without asking for it. authorization.
The implementing provisions then introduced a new and enhanced “FSE 2.0”, which today brings together every health service provided by public, accredited private and authorized private operators, and which will also collect all the information relating to clinical events relating to services provided by the NHS until May 18, 2020, when the data subject’s consent was still required. But to protect privacy, the possibility of opposing this “mass migration” of one’s health data has been provided. Citizens who do not want their health data prior to May 18, 2020 to end up in the ESF must therefore communicate their refusal by the end of June.
After this deadline, the transfer will take place automatically and massively and it will no longer be possible to prevent it. Anyone wishing to make use of this option must do so through the Health Card System portal. Those who are in favor, however, do not have to do anything.
The methods for submitting the opposition are regulated by a decree. The choice can only be made online, by accessing the “FSE – Opposition to previous records” service available on the Health Card System (Sts) portal.
In the area of the portal reserved for Citizens (https://sistemats1.sanita.finanze.it/portale/area-riservata-cittadino) there is the specific functionality, which will remain active only until June 30th.
Access occurs by authenticating via digital identity: using the health card or the national services card (Cns), the Cie-electronic identity card (provided you have the relevant pin) or via Spid.
Once entered, the procedure is very simple: you must read the information, and then just click on the “Objection” box and then press the “I object” button, in order to send your declaration.
The data from 2020 to today already automatically feeds the ESF: those who do not oppose the acquisition of the previous data will have the advantage of having a more complete archive of all their pathologies, previous treatments and history of all the reports, wherever they are made in Italy. And every time you go to a visit (including the emergency room), your entire health history will be available to the doctor with an advantage that is not only practical (not having to carry around cumbersome paper files), but also effective, because a doctor who has more information can treat better. The data that would migrate to the ESF are, however, already present in the digital archives of the regional structures.
The novelty would be the “concentration” on a national platform. The infrastructure ensures access only to authorized persons, with adequate IT security measures. (uc)
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