Luxembourg is among the European member states to offer the first cross-border electronic health services: the electronic cross-border exchange of a patient summary and an electronic prescription. These contribute to safer healthcare and across borders. Find out more below.
The benefits of cross-border e-health services for you
Thanks to the MyHealth@EU services, your patient summary containing your essential health information can be shared with the healthcare professional you consult during your stay abroad. This allows them to provide care that is best suited to your state of health.
Likewise, you will be able to pick up medicine from a pharmacy based in another European country through the electronic transfer of a digital prescription written in your country of affiliation.
As both types of documents exchanged are provided in the language of the country visited and in the language of your country of affiliation, this removes potential language barriers between you and the healthcare professional.
MyHealth@UE services thus contribute to better care and facilitate the continuity of safe and quality care across borders.
By 2022, they will gradually be implemented in the following 22 European countries: Finland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands.
Cross-border health services made available by the eSanté Agency
Since the end of June 2019, the Agence eSanté has been operating the first use case of cross-border exchange: the possibility for a Luxembourgish doctor to receive the patient summary of a foreign citizen who is to be treated by him.
At the launch of this service, a doctor could request the electronic transfer of the patient summary for patients from the Czech Republic, then also for those from Malta, and soon also for patients of Portuguese origin.
Two additional use cases will be operational shortly:
- sending the patient summary of a Luxembourg insured person to the doctor he or she consults abroad - this service will be available in the second half of 2020;
- sending an e-prescription - prescribed by a Luxembourgish doctor - to a pharmacy in another European country: this service is expected to be operational in 2021.
How to benefit from this service?
Before a foreign doctor can access your data :
- you must have given your explicit consent to the cross-border electronic exchange of your health data. If you are a Luxembourg insured person, you can register your consent in your electronic health record (DSP).
- the doctor must inform you of your rights - he will do so on the basis of the patient information notice provided by his national competent authority.
