Implementation of a Cloud-Based Personal Health System for Cross-Border Collaboration

Abstract

This paper presents a brief overview of the concepts of collaboration, communication, data exchange and challenges for a patients’ centric health information system, simultaneously used in two different countries for crossborder citizens. The system intends to create a Personal Health Record (PHR) for participants (patients, doctors, pharmacists) that includes the patient’s current and past health status, prescriptions and referrals. Using these data, we can contribute to creating a better and higher-quality health service system in crossborder regions. The electronic prescription (E-Prescription) and the electronic referral (E-Referral) are the important points in the process of digitization of the cross-border PHR system. Their transformation from written to electronic form creates digitized records that can enable the treatment of the patients in another participating country. The main goal of the software system presented in this paper is to enable cross-border collaboration in the healthcare domain between two neighboring countries: North Macedonia and Greece. Both countries have their own health record systems. In this paper, we address the challenges in communication and synchronization between the created webPHR systems for the Cross4all project.