*e-Nabız – electronic and personal health record system (2024)

Third prize winnerin category Digital Transformation in EPSA 2023-24

Context

The digitalisation in healthcare services has become a widely prevalent global trend with the increase in technological developments. Main factors influencing this trend include ageing, childhood diseases and deaths, epidemics, high costs, migration and the negative effects of poverty on access to healthcare services. Having a population of 85 million inhabitants and hosting numerous immigrants and refugees, Türkiye has prioritised the advancement of the digitalisation of its healthcare services and the production of solutions for current healthcare needs. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Türkiye intensified its efforts towards digitalisation in healthcare with the implementation of the Health Transformation Programme in the first decade of the 2000s and, after 15 years of development, in 2015 it launched e-Nabız, an integrated National Health System developed by the General Directorate of Health Information Systems.

Objectives

e-Nabiz is a digital platform that stores and shares all medical and demographic data of patients and healthcare services. It aims to facilitate service delivery to the citizens, as well as increase efficiency and transparency within the healthcare system. It functions as both an electronic health record and a personal health record system, allowing for the collection of accurate data in a standardised manner. It enhances the quality and speed of the diagnosis and treatment, establishes a strong communication network between citizens and healthcare professionals, and stands as a comprehensive health informatics infrastructure that can be securely accessed over the internet. The e-Nabız system, which centrally preserves users’ entire medical histories in a database, mitigates the risk of loss or damage to health information. Citizens can access a wide range of health data, including diagnosis and treatment details, and laboratory test results. Furthermore, it integrates wearable devices to reflect medical data measurements on the user profile. The project also offers features such as scheduling doctor and vaccination appointments, and assessing health risks. This encourages citizens to make more informed health decisions, promotes health literacy and encourages active health management. The integrated and comprehensive database of the e-Nabız system plays a crucial role in the development of effective health policies at all levels.

Implementation

The vast data ecosystem of the e-Nabız system is built on multiple information management systems used by nearly 2000 hospitals, 9000 medical centres, 27 000 family medicine centres and 29 000 pharmacies. e-Nabız integrates with over 40 of these information management systems, ensuring the consolidation of data produced at roughly 60 000 points into a single platform. The system is developed and coordinated by an eight-person project team under the General Directorate of Health Information Systems in the Ministry of Health. The project team is responsible for the coordination and development of e-Nabız, integrating it with various digital applications under the Ministry of Health. As a public project under the Republic of Türkiye, e-Nabız is directly financed from the public budget and undergoes procurement processes for maintenance services. The e-Nabiz system has brought an innovative service approach to health management in administrative, medical and financial aspects as it is integrated with over 40 information management systems in healthcare facilities nationwide. It has recorded 7.7 billion drug entries, 6.3 billion test processes and 15 million organ donation records to date, with an average of 1.7 million daily logins. Additionally, 240 000 healthcare professionals have conducted 500 million queries in the platform. These figures demonstrate that serving more than 75 million users, e-Nabiz contributes significantly to improving healthcare access and quality in Türkiye.

* EIPA has been informed that the technology used in the “e-Nabız” project is subject to an on-going legal dispute regarding Intellectual Property Rights. The presentation of an award by EIPA for the project does not in any way constitute recognition of these intellectual property rights, and by awarding the price, EIPA does not take a stance in the legal dispute amongst the parties. By issuing this disclaimer, EIPA acknowledges the dispute and the positions of the parties which are under the purview of the law courts.