Proposal by Minister Spahn: Doctors should be allowed to prescribe apps

Will the doctor soon no longer prescribe only tablets or crutches, but also mobile applications for smartphones, smartwatches or tablets? This is precisely what a draft for a new digitization law by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn envisages. The costs should be taken over by the health insurance companies. "Patients should be able to rely on meaningful digital applications - such as apps or diagnostic tools - to quickly get into care," writes the CDU politician on Twitter.

This refers to health apps such as digital diaries for diabetics or apps for people with hypertension. Spahn also wants to strengthen other digital offers. In the future, patients should be able to find doctor's offices more easily, which also offer video consultation hours. "The patient of tomorrow will still need a doctor," argues Spahn. "But he will not take seriously any doctor who only works on index cards."

Patients should be able to rely on meaningful digital applications - eg. As apps or diagnostic tools - come quickly to the supply. That's why today we presented the draft for a new digitalization law. #Digitizing pic.twitter.com/bn7NSsPKV2

The reimbursement should apply only to applications that have been tested by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) on security, data protection, transparency and user-friendliness, reports the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". According to this, manufacturers should be able to offer the app for a year and determine the price themselves. After that they would have to prove that the application improves their care. Only then should they be able to negotiate with health insurance companies about the reimbursement.

Honorary reduction for "analog" doctors?

According to the draft, the electronic patient file should also be more extensive and also include a vaccination certificate, maternity card or dental bonus booklet. A law that has already been passed stipulates that the health insurances must offer their insured persons an electronic patient file no later than 2021 that they can access with a smartphone or tablet.

Doctors who do not participate in digital patient care are threatened by 2.5 percent reduction in fees from March 2020, according to the Ministry of Health. The presenter's draft now goes into the departmental vote.

Not all doctors are enthusiastic about Spahn's digitization plans. Earlier this week, physicians warned in an open letter to Spahn that patient data was not sufficiently protected against hacker attacks.

"It can not be that the certified technicians install the devices and it partially disabled protection systems of the practice from hacker attacks, so that the TI works smoothly," said Bernhard Salomon the IG Med German Medical Union and demanded patient data only in the so-called kiosk mode process, as is common in France. So without telematics or the exchange of sensitive medical data in an insecure network.