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eArztbrief is safer, faster and more ecological / Changeover will save the printing and mailing of 30,000 letters per year / Technical procedure relevant for other healthcare facilities

The Medical Center - University of Freiburg has reached an important milestone in digital communication between clinics and physicians in private practice. On January 26, the first electronic doctor's letter, eArztbrief for short, was sent to an ophthalmologist in private practice from the Medical Center - University of Freiburg's Department of Ophthalmology. In future, the Eye Center alone will be able to send around 30,000 doctor's letters digitally every year. The experts at the Eye Center and the Center for Digitalization and Information Technology at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg have been able to significantly reduce the delivery time of doctor's letters in this way.

"The digital transformation of the healthcare system is very important to us. The introduction of the eArztbrief makes communication with physicians in private practice safer, faster and more ecological," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Frederik Wenz, Chief Medical Officer of the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. The eArztbrief is sent via the information-secure KIM portal within the telematics infrastructure. KIM stands for "Communication in Medicine". Up to now, doctors' letters have generally been sent by post or, in urgent situations, exceptionally by fax.

The eDoctor's letter has so far been rejected by many institutions because posting the letters on the KIM portal is not only technically complex, but also time-consuming. The Freiburg experts have now created a way to automate the time-consuming processes in the background. "The experience gained here will help us to integrate the eArztbrief into other clinical workplace systems in the future," says Dr. Lennart Jahnke, Chief Digital Officer at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg.

Significantly faster and more secure

"Telematik's eDoctor's letters are a perfect match for our fully electronic doctor's letter system, which has been signing our doctor's letters electronically for a year now. This shortens the delivery of our doctor's letters and saves work for the recipients, as the electronic letters are automatically sorted into the correct files," praises Prof. Dr. Thomas Reinhard, Medical Director of the Eye Center - University of Freiburg.

The eArztbrief also makes mailing more secure: "This is an important success for data protection, as it helps us to avoid incorrect mailings and dispense with the insecure fax for urgent messages," says Prof. Dr. Daniel Böhringer, Senior Physician and Data Protection Officer at the Eye Center.