[Ten critical theses for patient applied telematic applications in health care]

Telematics applications in health care improve patient care in many ways. Especially the improvements through electronic communication, documentation and cooperation between the different providers have high potential for a qualitative and effective health care. Immaterialization of patient records enables their availability as health records across all health care institutions that are involved in the treatment of a patient. However, the realization of a telematic platform in health care raises new questions concerning ethical and technical issues. These questions must be answered in consideration of the interests of citizens, patients, health care providers and insurance companies. Against this background ten critical theses regarding patient-oriented applications in health telematics are presented and discussed. Special attention is paid to the changes in the relationship between patients and physicians and the necessity to establish a new cooperative medical documentation culture, based on controlled vocabularies and where patients and physicians together decide, which information should be added to the central health record, as well as the creation of the necessary trustworthiness and the balance of effective benefit of health telematics and the informational self determination of the patient.