International Patient Abbreviation (IPS) is mainly used nationally

In December 2021 The third JIC openForum took place, IPS International Patient Summary is a collaboration between five rating agencies, all members of the Joint Initiative Council on Global Health Information Standardization. The starting point is the EN ISO 27269 standard for the structure and content of IPS.

Default output support

To implement this standard, the HL7 CDA and HL7 FHIR IPS Enforcement Guides have been developed. These HL7 processing guides specify the SNOMED CT IPS reference package. It contains all relevant maintenance terms for the patient’s contraction and may be used under a ‘free to use’ license. Finally, an IHE IPS profile, with examples and test scripts that can be used during an IHE Connectathon, was created to turn it into an experimental process.

Many countries are in the process of introducing IPS within their own national borders so that continuity of observation can be guaranteed and at the same time connectivity with cross-border transfers can be easily established. More information on this can be found at New website Summary of International Patients launched during the JIC openForum.

National Level IPS

According to the HL7 Netherlands organization, the Netherlands is well on its way to implementing IPS nationally with the Basic Database for Healthcare (BgZ). After all, BgZ is based on the European Patient Summary Guidelines for Cross-border Care, and is based on the Patient Summary. So the Netherlands is rightly included in IPS enforcement around the world.

For example, during the HL7 International FHIR Connectathon days in September, PBL provider Drimpy sent and received patient data to medical information systems in New Zealand and Italy based on the HL7-FHIR standard. According to Trimbi, this is the first time data from BgZin has been placed on IPS and sent from the Netherlands to other countries.

Focus on data transfer

Data exchange in healthcare is explicitly mentioned in the new alliance agreement, particularly in relation to BgZ and the personal health environment (PBL). The Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP), of which the Netherlands is an active member, also has a working group of countries working together to introduce patient summaries. Last summer, the G7 group of large nations explicitly named the summary as a way for patients to access their own health data.