COLOMBIA

The Executive Branch passed Law 2015 of 2020 on the Single Electronic Medical Record (HCE for its acronym in Spanish), aimed at unifying the country’s medical records into a single digital register, accessible to health professionals when treating patients. The HCE must contain the patient’s relevant clinical data presented in a clear and standardized way, respecting patient confidentiality. In addition, patients have the right to have their clinical records delivered to them free of charge and promptly by the health institutions storing them, whether in physical or digital format. The law should be implemented in the next five years, while the interoperability model to be used will be regulated by the National General Archive together with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, within the next 12 months.

The regulations require health service providers to make the medical records of all Colombians available so that they can be consulted on an interoperability platform, meaning that all systems must be able to communicate between them in order to provide health professionals with information from each Colombian’s medical records. “This is one of the great advances that the Government of President Ivan Duque is driving to modernize the health system, making it more efficient for the benefit of the general population. Electronic medical records will give health services providers access to basic patient health data, enabling more accurate diagnoses, better follow-up and fewer procedures,” said the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Iván Darío González Ortiz.