Patients’ Health Information Exchange Within the European Union: A Croatian Case Study

Cross-border healthcare is one of the pillars for the European Union, due to the evidence that many Europeans travel and live outside of their home region and country for temporary or permanent work, studies and holidays. During the last decade, the EC and the EU countries, gathered in the e-Health Network, have been implementing and advancing an infrastructure ensuring the continuity of care for European citizens while they are travelling abroad in the EU, the eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure. Since joining the EU in 2013, Croatia has been actively participating in the e-Health Network with the right to vote and participate in working bodies and expert groups. Since 2019, the Croatian health system has been fully connected to the eHDSI, as one of the leaders among the EU countries, along with Estonia, Portugal and Spain, by enabling the two-way cross-border exchange of health data, more precisely e-prescriptions and patient summaries. This paper provides a Croatian case study on implementation of these cross-border e-health services within the EU, providing new healthcare pathways for EU citizens.