UNICOM featured in the 18th meeting of the European eHealth Network (eHN): The EU-funded project has taken first steps to support electronic cross-border exchange of patient summaries and ePrescriptions between EU member states (MyHealth@EU, leveraging the eHealth Digital Services Infrastructure -eHSDI), specifically in the domain of naming and coding of Medicinal Products. A working relationship has been established with eHNs Semantic Task Force. UNICOM is defining requirements & specifications to exploit the power of IDMP standardised medicine information both for ePrescriptions and Patient Summaries.

Key IDMP-related requirements are already included in a draft of the eHealth Network Patient Summary Guideline Release 3, which was submitted for consideration to the 18th eHN Meeting (12 Nov 2020). During the preparatory session, Dr Karl Stroetmann , coordinator of the UNICOM project, has also detailed the expected benefits from implementing IDMP; he called on Member States to push for the full adoption of IDMP standards and related coding systems in order to reap as soon as possible the expected substantial benefits for patient safety and more effective healthcare. This requires an open and structured cooperation between all actors involved in the medicinal products value chain – nationally and globally – which IDMP adoption makes possible.