In 2019, Cyprus is expected to introduce its new National Health Insurance System, 13 years after Myria Antoniadou’s World Report which identified the Mediterranean island’s health-care challenges. With the new National Health Insurance System, Cyprus will become a primary-care-driven country, and it will be the latest European Union (EU) member state to have a universal health-care system
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, chairman of the EU eHealth Task Force to “redesign health in Europe for 2020”, notes that successfully ensuring health-care access for all EU citizens depends on information-technology application and data use.
In Cyprus, patient medical records are generally paper-based and highly fragmented, which increases the risk of duplicate investigations and of patients being prescribed unsuitable medication. The new health-care system, combined with the changes in data management in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), indicates promising positive changes. ….more