Deutsche Angestellten Krankenkasse (DAK)

The German Ministry of Health had recently mandated the use of electronic health cards for all citizens. Deutsche Angestellten Krankenkasse (DAK), one of Germany’s leading insurers working through its IT provider Ensanio, was one of the first companies to implement the cards. Until the advent of the electronic health cards, if a customer wanted to compile his or her medical records, they had to do so using paper copies provided by practitioners. The electronic cards would enable insurants to store and access their healthcare data in an internet portal, for use by healthcare providers.

Business challenge
DAK and Ensanio were seeking a value-added benefit that the company could provide to people to earn and keep their business, and saw an opportunity with the new electronic healthcards. If it could provide a way for insurants to access and manage their own healthcare data, and even provide a way to use telemedicine services such as blood pressure and weight monitoring, the company felt that it could gain a significant competitive advantage, and gain new customers through the provision of these innovative services. The services envisioned would transform DAK from an insurance provider to a provider of value-added preventive healthcare services and self-serve customer service for its clients.

Solution
Ensanio engaged IBM Global Business Services to implement a patient-driven health information portal through which insurants can manage and access their healthcare information on demand. Through the portal, the insurant can compile his or her entire healthcare record onto an electronic health record, which can then be uploaded to the healthcare card. The solution is entirely patient/insurant driven – the insurant requests the records from the healthcare provider, decides which other providers should see them, and then provides access to only those records he or she has chosen to be viewable. The records are hidden from the insurance company, and all electronic records transfers are done through the independent portal technology. There are also several portal applications, such as calendaring and appointment notification, general health information about diseases and search functionalities (also to general publications) for use by the insurants, providing convenient service to the insurant every time they log in to the portal.

In addition to the portal itself, IBM, Ensanio and DAK are developing telemedicine components to this patient-driven solution. Insurants can monitor their blood pressure and other statistics through commercial medical devices equipped with Bluetooth communication modules. Information is sent to the portal via smartphones provided to the insurant configured with IBM software. Finally, a backend system, consisting of a System x server and a database, gather the information and provide it to the appropriate healthcare provider. Medical staff is able to monitor patients in near real time, and provide quick, effective medical response if needed.

Benefits
When the portal goes live at the end of 2007, DAK will be the first insurer in Germany with a solution that enables its customers to access and manage their healthcare records via a portal and their healthcare card. Surveys have shown that nearly 80% of insurants want this kind of service, and DAK expects to increase its customer base by 10% to 7 million insurants. Not only will the combined portal and telemedicine solution make DAK a first-mover in using the new healthcard in an innovative manner, it also provides a new business opportunity to the company, which is intending to sell the solution to other insurance companies. The telemedicine solution also has the potential for far-reaching impact on medical care in Germany, since it focuses on and encourages preventive medicine.