Towards a cross-domain infrastructure to support electronic identification and capability lookup for cross-border ePrescription/patient summary services

Seamless patient identification, as well as locating capabilities of remote services, are considered to be key enablers for large scale deployment of facilities to support the delivery of cross-border healthcare. This work highlights challenges investigated within the context of the Electronic Simple European Networked Services (e-SENS) large scale pilot (LSP) project, aiming to assist the deployment of cross-border, digital, public services through generic, re-usable technical components or Building Blocks (BBs). Through the case for the cross-border ePrescription/Patient Summary (eP/PS) service the paper demonstrates how experience coming from other domains, in regard to electronic identification (eID) and capability lookup, can be utilized in trying to raise technology readiness levels in disease diagnosis and treatment. The need for consolidating the existing outcomes of non-health specific BBs is examined, together with related issues that need to be resolved, for improving technical certainty and making it easier for citizens who travel to use innovative eHealth services, and potentially share personal health records (PHRs) with other providers abroad, in a regulated manner.