For Netlink, two aims:

• Assist the choice of standard technical components in the design and implementation of systems based on interactive microprocessing cards and a secure network in the field of Healthcare ;
  
• Demonstrate the feasibility of the project recommendations and evaluate their impact by setting up pilot sites on the ground.
  

  In this way, the insured people of Alsace will from then on be able to use their Vitale card for hemodyalisis hospital treatment when this is available in one of the four pilot Treatment Centres based in Germany. This project is clearly a real service for insured French people.
  

The experiment

How does this actually work?

For Alsacians to have dialysis in Germany, they just need to present their Vitale card previously up-dated with the data of the European form E112 in order to be admitted into one of the four pilot Dialysis Centres in the Federal Province of Bade-Würtemberg in Germany. The card can be up-dated at one of the five CPAM offices in the Alsace region or from any public SESAM-Vitale terminals in this region.
After the dialysis session, the nephrologist will input the electronic medical report in conformity with the dialysis protocol. The medical report will then supplement the personal nephrological data held on a dedicated, secure server called a "nephro-report". This server can be consulted at any time via the Internet by a French or German nephrologist, as long as the latter has been formally authenticated with a certificate supplied to them by the Dialysis Centre. All data exchanged between the server and the client post are registered in compliance with current legislation.

Advantages for all

The Patient
Patients benefit from the simplification of cross-border administrative procedures by using their medical card to exercise their rights as a medically insured person, beyond their national border, for programmed complementary treatment. In addition, through the clinical data stored on the nephrology server, the patient also benefits from continued medical monitoring.

The Healthcare Professional
For the nephrologist, the Nephro-Report software assists the cross-border tracability of the treatment given, by providing on-line access in real time to the patient's medical records.

Interesting results

The system being used on the French and German sites is inter-operable. The pilot Dialysis Centres can read the E112 data on the Vitale card using their own computer equipment (reader, software and terminal) without the addition of any specific SESAM-Vitale component being required. The electronic medical record can be consulted securely from a standard Internet navigator.

Future prospects for Netlink
In view of the results obtained from this project, German, Austrian, Greek and Spanish medical insurance companies envisage taking part in a new project inspired by Netlink. Netlink appears today as a model that can be adapted to suit other experiments in Europe and elsewhere in the world... to be followed with interest!