What is the ePa (electronic patient record)?

As of January 1, 2021, the introduction of the electronic patient record began. Since that time, one often hears or reads about the so-called ePa. But what it is and what purpose it is supposed to serve is still not very clear to many.

Until now, in the best case, the family doctor collected all findings of a patient. This means he referred the patient to the respective specialists as needed and received the findings from them regarding the examinations conducted there. The same applied to reports from hospital stays. In some cases, the reports were directly given to the patients with the instruction to submit them to the family doctor; often, the reports were also sent directly. This resulted in a more or less complete collection in the patient file maintained by the family doctor.

Findings required for specialist treatment, a hospital stay, or rehabilitation, etc., had to be requested from the family doctor. However, if emergency treatment was necessary, these findings were often missing, along with important information.

Among other things, this situation is what the electronic patient record aims to resolve. Because now all findings of a patient can be collected here. They are available at any time in the free app or on the health card. Additionally, a so-called emergency data set (NFD) can be stored in the ePa, which contains all relevant information in case of an emergency, such as diagnoses, allergies, the current medication plan, pregnancy, etc. The person to be notified in case of an emergency can also be noted here.

The ePa is intended to be a record managed by the patient. Health insurance companies provide the ePa for every insured person who has not actively opposed its creation. This new version, using the opt-out procedure, is to be gradually rolled out to all patients after a test phase starting in January 2025. Existing ePas that were requested by insured persons using the opt-in procedure will be updated to the new version. The functions are also expected to be made available gradually. Initially, the ePa will be introduced as a so-called "skeleton file," the scope of which will then expand over time.
The free app provided by the health insurance companies can then be downloaded and used by the patient on their smartphone or tablet. Alternatively, the ePa is also available on the health card.

The patient decides for themselves whether and how they want to use the ePa, which data is stored in it, and who has access to which data.

They can also decide which documents should possibly be deleted or who should have their access to the data revoked. In the long term, findings, etc., should be archived here for a lifetime. Thus, there should only be one ePa for each patient.

Specifically, the storage of the emergency data set (NFD) on the health card is an important improvement over the previous handling. It saves searching in case of an emergency, valuable time, and provides rescue workers with important information about the patient's medical history and current medication directly.

Service providers include not only doctors but also therapists, pharmacies, or other individuals/institutions involved in treatment. However, no data is automatically transferred here either; rather, the desired files must be consciously copied to the health card or the ePa available there. The originals remain with the respective doctor, therapist, etc., as before.

In general, only those who have been authorized by the patient have access to the ePa.

Neither the operators of the ePa nor the health insurance company can access the collected data. A special feature is the NFD: In an emergency, doctors, rescue workers, and other individuals with an electronic health professional ID can access it without the patient's consent (who may not be able to provide it in an emergency). Every access to it is recorded on the health card and is thus traceable afterwards.

Data protection is taken very seriously: The servers for the ePa are located in Germany. Thus, the ePa is subject to European data protection regulations. Extensive certification processes must also be completed before the provider can make the ePa available.

What should be stored in the electronic patient record (ePa)?

As mentioned above, the ePa is intended to accompany us throughout our lives. Starting with the U-examinations for children and adolescents, vaccinations, allergies, blood type, various documents such as the maternity record, the dental bonus booklet, and of course all other findings can be stored. But also services provided by the health insurance that have been utilized, data on health applications, as well as nursing care, even the electronic sick leave certificate and electronic prescriptions to document the medication history, should be included in the ePa. You can also store your PDF evaluation from BloodPressureDB in your ePa.

Overall, the electronic patient record (ePa) is a very sensible innovation. However, it also places the patient as a partner in their own medical care under obligation. Because the best record is of no use if it is not maintained. Thus, it is also the patient's responsibility to keep it up to date and, if necessary, to release the findings that are of interest to the respective doctor.

Data protection for the ePa is also a recurring topic. These are sensitive data that are stored and should not fall into unauthorized hands. To ensure the ePa is secure, everything possible is being done, as mentioned above.

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This article is from BloodPressureDB the leading app since 2011 that supports hundreds of thousands in blood pressure monitoring every day. Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 01/2025).

Author Sabine Croci is a certified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as in outpatient care, and has been leading the editorial team of BloodPressureDB since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as a paramedic, first responder, and in various therapy and emergency areas, she provides well-founded, practical, and reliably verified information.

What is the ePa (electronic patient record)?

What should be stored in the electronic patient record (ePa)?

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