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e-Health E-health is mostly associated with the ability to contact doctors electronically, purchasing medications with an e-prescription or an electronic health insurance card. Market surveys show that every other Pole would eagerly use the opportunity to make an appointment with a specialist over the Internet. But e-Health is about more than electronic cards-it is also about teleconsultation, videocommunication or remotely controlled procedures. Telemedicine in Poland is still in development, but the Cardiology Institute in Anin and Hearing Physiology and Pathology Institute in Warsaw have already made some notable progress. According to research conducted in 350 district hospitals by the Medical Information Technology and Telemedicine Unit of the Medical University of Warsaw in 2007, the availability of computer hardware in hospitals varies. All the hospitals had Internet access, and 38.9% of them had a transfer rate exceeding 1Mbps. Although the hospitals have been providing mainly traditional consultation, as many as 66% of them find it necessary to improve the doctor-patient communication, and approximately 25% of Polish hospitals are planning to introduce teleconsultation in the near future. In their development plans, medical institutions always indicate that it is necessary to purchase digital equipment and upgrade information systems. In 2008, the National Health Fund (NFZ) is to implement the national electronic register of medical services (RUM), and by the end of 2009, all Poles are to have e-RUM cards. The e‑card is to follow the example from the Silesian Province, where 5 million patients have been using such a solution since 2001. The electronic insurance card will enable identifying patients, authorising transactions as well as confirming the scope and period of eligibility. It is important to note that the e-card will not store any medical or case history data-it will provide access to medical data stored centrally in electronic form. It will be probably secured with a PIN code and biometric data in the future. The introduction of e-RUM cards will streamline the flow of patient information between healthcare institutions and allow to economise expenses. As a result, e-cards are to bring savings of approximately 10% of all the annual healthcare expenditure-that is PLN 4-5 billion (€1.17-1.47) on the national scale.
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