The aim of the guidelines is to make it possible for patients to have a summary of their electronic health record available when visiting another country in the EU. This will improve patient safety and continuity of care. In the event emergency care, the doctor in the country of treatment will have an electronic overview of the patient:

• A set of basic administrative data such as details of the healthcare provider in the home country, insurance info;

• Medical information on for example allergies, vaccinations and recent surgical procedures.  

The guidelines were developed and agreed on by the eHealth Network, a group of representatives of all 28 EU countries. The Network is co-chaired by the European Commission and Austria.

See Guidelines on minimum/nonexhaustive patient summary dataset for electronic exchange in accordance with the cross-border directive 2011/24/EU