Tools for health professionals within the German health telematics platform

Shared care concepts such as managed care and continuity of care are based on extended communication and co-operation between different health professionals or between them and the patient respectively. Health information systems and their components, which are very different in their structure, behaviour, data and their semantics as well as regarding implementation details used in different environments for different purposes, have to provide intelligent interoperability. Therefore, flexibility, portability, knowledge-based interoperability and future-orientation must be guaranteed using the newest development of model driven architecture. The ongoing work for the German health telematics platform based on an architectural framework and a security infrastructure is described in some detail. This concept of future-proof health information networks with virtual electronic health records as core application starts with multifunctional electronic health cards. It fits into developments currently performed by many other developed countries. The paper introduces into the German health telematics platform and its tools based on smart card.