Sharing health data in Belgium: A home care case study using the Vitalink platform

Abstract

In 2013, the Flemish Government launched the Vitalink platform. This initiative focuses on the sharing of health and welfare data to support primary healthcare.In this paper, the objectives and mission of the Vitalink initiative are discussed. Security and privacy measures are reviewed and the technical implementation of the Vitalink platform is presented. Through a case study, the possibility of interaction with cloud solutions for healthcare are also investigated upon; this was initially not the focus of Vitalink.The Vitalink initiative provides support for secure data sharing in primary healthcare, which in the long term will improve the efficiency of care and will decrease costs. Based on the results of the case study, Vitalink allowed cloud solutions or applications not providing endto-end security to use their system. The most important lesson learned during this research was the need for firm regulations and stipulations for cloud solutions to interact with the Vitalink platform. However, these are currently still vague.

The impact of interprofessional communication through ICT on health outcomes of older adults receiving home care in Japan – A retrospective cohort study

“…8,9 To date, only case studies have been conducted in home care settings, which have reported the organizational advantages of cloud-based information sharing systems, such as facilitating cooperation, continuous monitoring of patients, and an improved sense of security and confidence. [21][22][23] Overall, our study is generally consistent with previous literature, in that it demonstrates the clinical…”

“…Apart from the qualitative reports derived from subjective assessments based on surveys, several studies have quantitatively reported health outcome improvements, resulting from information sharing in hospitalized patients 8,9 . To date, only case studies have been conducted in home care settings, which have reported the organizational advantages of cloud‐based information sharing systems, such as facilitating cooperation, continuous monitoring of patients, and an improved sense of security and confidence 21–23 . Overall, our study is generally consistent with previous literature, in that it demonstrates the clinical benefits of information sharing.…”

Can caregivers trust information technology in the care of their patients? A systematic review

“…13,37,39,39 13 This new technology also raises concerns regarding privacy maintained during short and long term communications. 36 In addition, an ICs ability to monitor wearables will alleviate anxiety about constantly monitoring their relative. 17 The majority of the studies the researchers identified focused on parents or ICs of pediatric patients (80%), and protection of the child's information was the most important topic in the studies.…”

“…Electronic medical record is used within one healthcare organization. 34 Perceptions Desired features of a mobile application from the perspectives of relatives to enhance elderly care-taking responsibilities 13 Wearables: Devices to collect data, worn by the patient, mobile technology that enables monitoring of an individual's health status 34 Viewpoints of patients and caregivers about the use of wearable technology in epilepsy to monitor seizures 17 Internet of things: A network of devices enabling collection and exchange of data 35 Internet of things is explored in healthcare 35 ; Case study in Belgium considering exchange of data between different professional caregivers 36 ; Focus groups used to determine preferences of older adults for using wellness tools, including use of other sources of information and technology to support their health 37 knowledge of personal health records (PHR) when shown a new system for childhood cancer patients. 29 In another exploratory study with a system not yet in place, Kitayama, Stockwell, Vawdrey, Peña, and Catallozzi 28 explored whether parents would access a PHR that included immunization information after seeing a demonstration of a prototype of the system.…”

Patient data discovery platforms as enablers of biomedical and translational research: A systematic review

“…Our findings show that all studies include this functionality. Another critical issue when dealing with biomedical data is privacy protection and proper access control; 20% of the studies take into consideration secure data access and implement access control rules, such as user permissions [24,27,19,33,21]; 15% of the platforms address the privacy issue from the point of view of data anonymization and the possibility of data owners removing their datasets from the platform [17,40,18]. With respect to interoperability, 40% of the evaluated solutions rely on the use of ontologies and standards so as to provide a heterogeneous view of the data [16,17,26,27,28,30,32,23,21].…”