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title: Chaos Computer Club warns of incalculable risks with the electronic health card
date: 2008-03-16 00:00:00
updated: 2009-12-25 21:07:51
author: webmaster
tags: update, pressemitteilung, gesundheitskarte
The introduction of the electronic health card (eCard) scheduled for 1st April 2008 cannot take place as planned. The Federal Government's great technical adventure will start with no working security infrastructure. Thus the controversial project with highly disputable data protection is once again jumping the gun.
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After Dirk Drees, the former Chief Executive of gematik, threw in the
towel in December 2007 due to technical problems, Peter Bonerz took over
the management of the electronic health card project that has fallen
increasingly behind schedule.
Even today gematik is producing no more than a theoretical concept for
the project. At this year's Cebit exhibition Peter Bonerz had to admit
that the planned network infrastructure cannot yet be brought online
because the official call for tenders for the public key infrastructure
(PKI) of the central backbone server network has still not been
completed.
“Gematik actually means business about what sounds like an April Fool” ,
said Chaos Computer Club (CCC) spokesman Dirk Engling. “Huge amounts of
data are going to be amassed without any security architecture being
hot-tested so far. A field test of the communication systems could not
be performed due to the lack of the underlying call for tenders. Any
small software outfit would perform better without a budget of
billions.”
During past field tests problems emerged according to gematik in
accessing the health cards and in operating the new electronic receipt
(e-receipt) that has been advertised as the eCard's main application.
The field tests originally planned with 100,000 cards have just been
called off completely.
At the same time, almost unnoticed by the general public, every citizen
will have been assigned an unique number (Patient ID) for the health
card. With this identifier every person and his health history can be
tracked - even years later. Master data for all citizens, including
their health insurance number, will be stored centrally in unencrypted
form for use in authentication. Moreover, electronic patient records,
which have to date been voluntary, will also be stored centrally, even
though the Federal Government still maintains that control of sensitive
data remains with every member of health insurance schemes.
In addition, it is apparent from the health card technical documentation
made available by the Department of Health that so-called added-value
services are planned for introduction at a later date. The immense costs
of introduction and running the infrastructure are to be recouped in
future by this dubious business model.
“It's not acceptable for patient data to be used as a commodity even if
this data has been retained voluntarily. For a casualty patient it might
be unpleasant to find a special offer for cheap hip replacements in the
mail. The Federal Government has so far not explained exactly what these
ominous value-added services are to be used for”, commented CCC
spokesman Dirk Engling. Even the Federal Government's answer to a Free
Democrats (FDP) parliamentary question on the electronic health card
gave no clarification. \[1\]
The CCC is warning against the introduction of electronic health cards
as the necessary evaluation field tests have not been carried out as
scheduled due to poor planning, even though from April onwards the
experiment's incalculable risks and knock-on effects will be borne by
patients and members of the medical profession. Anyway, data protection
is mainly to be guaranteed by medical practices and clinics that will
themselves gain no additional benefits from the eCard. On the contrary,
doctors and pharmacists are the ones having to pay the costs of the ?
4.5 bn. project. At any rate, the Federal Government is no longer
claiming medical benefits for the health card. Furthermore, there is no
justification as to why billions are being spent on the project.
### Links and additional information
- \[1\] [FDP parliamentary question in the Bundestag on the technical
and legal problems regarding the introduction of the electronic
health
card](http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/083/1608334.pdf),
Official record 16/8334
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