A comparison of approaches to providing patients access to summary care records across old and new europe: an exploration of facilitators and barriers to implementation.

Providing online access to their medical records should empower patients. National health services in Estonia, France, and England introduced systems to provide online access to summary health data. The Estonian patient access called "Patient Portal" shares similarities with the French system "Dossier Médical Personnel" (DMP). Both are patient-controlled records. The English system "Summary Care Record" (SCR) provided access to patients through "HealthSpace," though has now been replaced by encouraging access to GP records. Denmark and Ireland also provided access rights to patients so they could view their records. Romania, Croatia, and Greece do not have national systems. The aim of this study is to compare adoption and uptake of patient access to summary data. The Estonian record was used by 3.6% of the population, the French one by 0.5% and the English system is due for closure with only 0.01% signing up for the most comprehensive access. Few countries across Europe have adopted patient access to summary health data at a national level, and where introduced, medical records have been accessed by less than 5% of the population.