What is the telematics infrastructure?

The telematics infrastructure (TI) is intended to enable secure networking of medical care within Germany. The connection of all doctors' practices and hospitals ensures that medical documents can be sent to the treating doctors quickly and easily -- and especially in a secure way. This should avoid multiple examinations and make the health system more efficient.

What does the telematics infrastructure consist of?

The TI consists of several individual components. The connector is required to allow doctors' surgeries, hospitals and pharmacies to access the TI. It establishes a connection to the VPN that allows documents to be sent and received securely.
KIM (Communication in Medicine) ensures the secure exchange of documents and information between the different participants of the TI. Documents are sent by secure e-mails within the TI.

With the help of the electronic health professional card (eHBA), doctors can identify themselves within the TI and thus obtain the necessary authorisations to create new documents and to change or read existing documents. Every doctor's practice, every hospital and every pharmacy must also be able to identify themselves in the TI. This is done by means of the institution card (SMC-B).

The electronic health insurance card (eGK) of the legally insured is also used for authentication within the TI. Insured Master Data Management (VSDM) means it is no longer necessary to issue a new card if the address or insurance status of the insured person changes. The data can be updated automatically at the next doctor's visit if the insured person has already reported the changes to their health insurance fund.

The eGK is also much more than just an authentication card. Emergency data (NFDM) and the electronic medication plan (eMP) can be stored on the card. This data is particularly important in emergency situations to ensure efficient and effective treatment, especially if the insured person is no longer able to provide this information.

The electronic patient record (ePA) is one of the most important applications of the TI. Through the ePA, every person with statutory health insurance can access their patient file on the move. Doctors can view treatments already carried out and investigation findings; they can also create and post new documents.

The next major TI project is the electronic prescription (e-prescription). This will replace the familiar paper prescription and enable rapid transmission to pharmacies. This should also enable insured persons to receive their medicines more quickly.

How secure is the telematics infrastructure?

Since medical data are always very sensitive, they also have a correspondingly high need for protection. The TI applications designed by gematik GmbH are coordinated with the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) and the BSI. This is done on the basis of the German Social Security Code (SGB) Book V, section 11.

To ensure that the security level planned in the concepts can also be guaranteed in implementation, the BSI certifies important components of the TI after the individual components have been evaluated by recognised testing bodies.