Large healthcare organisations frequently need to archive historic electronic health record information on patients who are no longer being cared for, perhaps if they have moved away or have died. It is important that this information is preserved in a standardised and well-documented way (including suitable metadata) so that it can reliably be reinstated should there be a need to reactivate a patient record (for example if somebody moves back to a city, or if there is a legal enquiry) or for research analysis.
Electronic Archiving (eArchiving) formalises that process. The European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eArchiving Building Block publishes standards and software tools to support Electronic Archiving. These include specifications to assist healthcare organisations and companies archive their health record data in a robust and reusable way. You can find out more about these standards here.
CEF is organising a series of free webinars on eArchiving standards and tools. The next one on 25th March at 10am CET will focus on eArchiving Patient Medical Records. You can find out more and register for the webinar here.