The blue button advances to offer more efficient and informed healthcare to the citizens

Since 2023, citizens can have access to a summary of their clinical data by downloading them from La Meva Salut and through the Blue Button.

The blue button is now advancing through private healthcare services to provide more efficient and informed healthcare to citizens.

In December of last year, the TIC Salut Social Foundation signed two collaboration agreements with the main associations representing the private healthcare sector in Catalonia: ACES (Catalan Association of Health Entities) and La Unió (Association of Health and Social Entities).

ACES, in conjunction with the TIC Salut Social Foundation, has been the promoter of the initiative in the private healthcare sector in Catalonia. During the pre-deployment planning phase, in which ACES actively collaborated, the action lines to be followed from 2024 were defined. The deployment is currently being prepared for the effective implementation and use of the Blue Button. The TIC Salut Social Foundation will provide the solution and ensure its proper functioning, taking on the tasks of maintenance and technological evolution of the functionality.

Data in the service of people

The ultimate goal is for citizens to have access to their health data regardless of where they were generated, whether in the public or private sector. Access and download will be carried out from the specific health platforms of the provider entities. With this perspective, the three organizations join forces to ensure that the citizens of Catalonia have access to their clinical information in a more complete and integrated manner.

The ability of individuals to successfully download their data from the public health system, with guarantees of digital portability and interoperability between systems, has been crucial to take a step further in the connection and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Short-Term Horizons

The project plans to initiate the deployment of this functionality among users of the private sector during this year 2024 to generate the first performance metrics for analysis focused on continuous improvement.

The journey of the Blue Button to La Meva Salut does not end here. During this year 2024, and representing the Health System of Catalonia and the Ministry of Health, the TIC Salut Social Foundation has begun its participation in xShare. A project funded through competitive funds from the Horizon Europe program, it consists of a consortium of 40 international partners working to adopt the functionality of health data download and portability among citizens and across different information systems within the European Union. Among other tasks, Catalonia will serve as an adoption site to test this European button and generate favorable evidence for the potential adoption of this solution in the remaining autonomous communities of the Spanish state.