Doctors Call for Extended Testing of Germany's Electronic Patient Records

Technical issues in pilot regions raise concerns about the readiness of the nationwide rollout planned for April.

The electronic patient record (ePA) system is currently being tested in three regions of Germany, but significant technical problems have been reported.
Doctors' associations in Bayern, Hamburg, Nordrhein, and Westfalen-Lippe have urged Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to delay the national rollout to address these issues.
Since January 15, approximately 70 million insured individuals in Germany have been issued ePAs unless they opted out, with 300 medical facilities participating in the pilot phase.
Reports indicate that a third of participating practices in Westfalen-Lippe have been unable to test the system due to missing technical prerequisites.
The government agency Gematik plans to evaluate the pilot phase in mid-March, but doctors warn that the timeline may be too short to resolve critical technical challenges.