A Prototype of the National EHR system for Cyprus

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• National eHealth Strategy
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Healthcare

Background:

• Establishing a national integrated electronic health record (EHR) system is crucial for modernizing healthcare infrastructure.
• Cyprus aims to create a foundational eHealth ecosystem requiring collaboration across medicine, ICT, management, and finance.
• Existing healthcare systems often face challenges with data fragmentation and interoperability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present Cyprus' initiative for designing and implementing a national integrated EHR prototype.
• To outline the system architecture, clinical content requirements, and hardware infrastructure.
• To ensure compliance with European and national privacy and security legislation for sensitive medical data.

Main Methods:

• Summarizing outcomes from the first phase, including healthcare and administrative requirements.
• Defining user stories, data flows, and associated functionalities.
• Leveraging the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard for an interoperability framework.

Main Results:

• The study details the healthcare and administrative requirements for the national EHR.
• An interoperability framework based on HL7 FHIR has been established, enabling cross-system communication.
• Third-party system connectivity has been defined within the framework.

Conclusions:

• The first phase of Cyprus' national integrated EHR initiative has successfully defined key requirements and an interoperability framework.
• The implemented HL7 FHIR standard facilitates seamless data exchange and connectivity essential for a national eHealth ecosystem.
• This project lays the groundwork for a comprehensive and secure digital health infrastructure in Cyprus.