At the beginning of the week, the Health ministry and the ministry for Digital Governance jointly presented a project which aims to bring all of healthcare patients’ medical data together on one digital platform which will be accessible to patients and doctors alike. We give here the full text of the press release of the event issued by the Health ministry:

Press release: Athens, 10th March 2025
At a press conference held on Monday 10th March, the Health minister Adonis Georgiadis, the minister for Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou and the deputy Health minister Eirini Agapidaki presented the new National Electronic Health Record, which is operational from that date. Also present were deputy ministers of Health Marios Themistocleos and Dimitris Vartzopoulos as well as the head of the Directorate of Horizontal Activities for Electronic Health at IDIKA [which manages the digital operations of Social Security], Elpida Fotiadou.

The National Electronic Health Record is a new system which incorporates citizens’ health data in a secure and user-friendly form. Through the MyHealth app citizens have full access to their personal health file, with all the diagnoses, drug prescriptions, test results and hospitalisations concentrated in one place. Doctors, through the MyHealth platform, have immediate access to the full medical history of their patients, facilitating the provision of personalised health services.

The aim of the project is the continuous improvement of the quality and continuity of care, with the implementation of artificial intelligence and the incorporation of new data. The National Electronic Health Record is the kernel of the digital transformation of our health system. It is a system which is enriched by the continuous addition of processes and data, to correspond to our continually changing needs. With the National Electronic Health Record, healthcare is becoming more effective, secure and accessible for all.

During his introduction to the new system, the Health minister Adonis Georgiadis said:
“We are here today to present to the Greek people a truly splendid project which has been carried out by the ministry of Health, through IDIKA and the ministry for Digital Governance. A project which constitutes the development of the old MyHealth app into something completely new, the National Electronic Health Record [EIFY in Greek]. The EIFY completely changes the way in which information about the health record of each of us reaches the treating doctor, in urgent cases and for any other use.

“A short while ago I signed off the creation of a National Patient Register for Rare Blood Diseases and the creation of a National Patient Register for Rare Eye Diseases. I say this as a year ago I had signed off the National Register for Neoplasms and together with IDIKA we have put this into active operation from 25th February. Already the first doctors have been registered, the first cancer patents have passed onto the national register, and by the end of the year they will all have been registered. Our aim is for health in Greece to enter a completely new era through the use of digital tools and that is why today is a historic day.”

The minister for Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou said:
“The presentation of the National Electronic Health Record constitutes a special moment for the country’s digitisation, a breakthrough for public health and the achievement of a significant landmark of the Recovery Fund. So far, the app interacts with 15 registers, 124 hospitals and 680 microbiological laboratories. Gradually, in collaboration with the ministry of Health, we will interconnect with more and more public and private bodies.

“In conjunction with the major project of ‘Improving the Digital Readiness of Hospitals’, which will bring all the country’s hospitals to the same digital level so that they can interact with one another, citizens will soon have access to the all their health information via the MyHealth app on their smartphone. Moreover, doctors will for the first time have a structured overall picture of the patient’s medical tests.

“We are utilising the advanced facilities of the ministry of Digital Governance to implement an application which will constitute the basis of all the new digital health services. At the same time we are placing great emphasis on user-friendliness and we are incorporating Artificial Intelligence into the application with Digital Aids for citizens and doctors. We will continue through IDIKA to incorporate digital solutions with multiple benefits for the vital Health sector.”

The deputy Health minister Eirini Agapidaki added:
“Over and above the obvious benefits of the National Electronic Health Record for citizens and for the formulation of health policies, there is another very important change which emerges from this reform. At the end of the year, with the completion of the National Electronic Health Record, there will be an end to the complications for thousands of citizens who apply to pass through the Health Committees of KEPA [Centre for Certification of Disability] to have their disabilities certified.

“From the end of the year the certification of disability will be carried out digitally, as the EIFY will have all the necessary information and will incorporate the data and the interoperability which is required. Thus the patient will no longer need to pass through a health committee: the certification of disability will be effected exclusively through digital means. The complications and delays for thousands of patients will be at an end.

“The final institutional framework will be worked out in cooperation with the jointly responsible ministries. We are making one more decisive step towards the modern welfare state which we want our country to have and the quality of life which each citizen deserves.”
(Ministry of Health press release)

A desirable concept – not so easy to achieve
The concept of a central and accessible repository of health information for every patent is one which has preoccupied nations across the world for some time but whose implementation is faced with multiple obstacles, not the least of which is the numerous non-compatible legacy systems which exist in most countries’ healthcare systems. A paper published by OECD in September 2023 noted that:

“Electronic Health Records (eHR) represent a significant digital transformation in the healthcare sector. A 2021 OECD survey of 27 countries revealed a growing adoption of eHRs. However, system fragmentation remains a concern: only 15 countries have a nationally unified system. Twenty-four countries have adopted a minimum data set for standardised core health information. While patient access to eHRs has notably increased since 2016, obstacles such as provider resistance, technical barriers, and legal hurdles continue to exist. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the pivotal role of eHRs, particularly in vaccine tracking and post-market surveillance, highlighting the pressing need for international cooperation to maximize the benefits of eHRs in healthcare. Furthermore, as eHRs integrate with artificial intelligence, new governance challenges arise.”
(www.oecd.org)

In a report published in November 2024 the Indian market research company Straits Research noted that:
“Due to encouraging government attempts to increase the adoption of HCIT [healthcare information technology]-based solutions, such as EHRs, the industry is expanding quickly. For instance, Australia’s My Health Record is the country’s official digital health record portal. The Australian Digital Health Agency oversees its management. Unless they opt out, every Australian citizen has a My Health Record. Estonia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, the UK, and the Netherlands are among the nations using shared prescription records and electronic prescribing to enhance drug management.”
(https:/straitsresearxh.com)

The Greek system, if it eventually works as claimed, may well represent a new standard in accessibility. Singapore has a similar system which echoes the claims made of the Greek one:
“The National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) is a key enabler for Singapore’s strategic vision of ‘One Patient, One Health Record’. It receives patients’ key health information from different healthcare settings and consolidates into a holistic picture of patients’ healthcare history, enabling greater coordination and informed decision-making, and support for more accurate diagnosis, improved treatment, and patient-centric integrated care.” (www.synapxe.sg)
However, access for patients appears to be limited. The British system, like the NHS itself, seems complex and unwieldy, with two digital registers, one for GPs and another for patients.

The updated MyHealth app
The introduction of the EIFY is being marked by the issue of an updated version of the MyHealth app, which can be downloaded from the usual sources. Users of the existing app will be prompted to update it when they open it for the first time from this week.

At an initial look it appears comprehensive up to a point. Its operation depends on the patient being identified by their AMKA (which is required for its activation), so no doubt any treatments carried out privately which do not record the patient’s AMKA will not be picked up. Patients also need to be signed up to the virtual prescription system (ayli syntagografisi), which allows doctors to write up prescriptions remotely to a central register, from which they can be retrieved by the pharmacist with the use of a bar code.

The menu for the new app includes Rendezvous, Diagnoses, Prescriptions, Referrals and Test results. Our own personal record so far includes prescriptions and referrals going back to the date when we first acquired an AMKA, and identifies the Microbiological Lab in Tavronitis where most of the tests were carried out, but does not yet include any of the test results. Since the National Electronic Health Record is being presented as a work in progress, with completion due by the end of the year, it will be interesting to see how much additional information has been incorporated by then.

In addition to the versions for Android and Apple, there is said to be a PC-based version, which has so far proved elusive. There is also a web-based platform (https://myhealth.gov.gr), which at present appears to have limited functionality. The two versions for smartphones can be downloaded at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gr.gov.myhealth&hl=en
https://apps.apple.com/gr/app/myhealth/id1571094114?platform=iphone