• More than 260,000 residents and travelers in the Madeira Islands can use the digital health solution free of charge
• Easy access to health data from public health services, via a European electronic health record – the Smart4Health platform

Potsdam (Germany), February 21, 2023. The Public Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Madeira – SESARAM, EPERAM – has successfully completed the integration with the prototype of a pan-European digital health record, the Smart4Health platform, at the end of 2022. As a result, all persons registered in the portal SESARAM patients (residents and tourists) are now able to synchronize their health data with the Smart4Health platform. This allows any user of Madeira’s public health services to share status information, medical records and clinical data or test results, securely with other healthcare professionals and family members, anywhere, anytime, via the platform.

Madeira is a European pioneer in digital health data management
SESARAM was formally established in May 2003 and currently serves more than 260,000 residents and travelers receiving medical care in the Madeira Islands. It is currently organized in 3 hospitals and 47 public health facilities. On May 27, 2003, SESARAM was formally established and since that day, an interoperability strategy has been adopted between all IT systems and now all public health units in the Madeira Islands share a unique and innovative health information system, known as SEIS-RAM , where each person has a unique Electronic Health Record (FSE), with all medical records and structured social clinical data included. The involvement of the Madeira region in EU projects such as Smart4Health, as well as the establishment of the Madeira Digital Health and Wellbeing initiative, involving SESARAM, the Regional Secretariat of Health and Civil Protection, the Regional Secretary of Tourism and Culture and UNINOVA (Smart4Health coordinator), demonstrates that digital health is clearly a strategic area for Madeira, aiming to provide better care with the patient at the heart of its activities.

Barbara Spínola, director of tourism information services, projects and events, regional directorate of tourism, said: « It is exciting to bring a new and innovative platform to Madeira, providing an easy and convenient way for local citizens and tourists to access their health data at any time, both locally and while traveling abroad. We believe the Smart4Health platform has the potential to transform the way people in Madeira, Portugal and Europe understand the concept of data access and how they can manage their health data on one central platform and we look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on Madeira’s local and tourist community. »

Smart4Health is the first pan-European electronic health record prototype
The project aims to bring about a cross-border paradigm shift in healthcare: all EU citizens should be able to manage their health data in a self-determined, secure and digital way. To this end, the consortium, consisting of 19 partners from various European countries such as Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria and Portugal, has been developing the Smart4Health platform since January 2019 based on real use cases in the field of physiotherapy, nursing and tourism. In addition to managing individual health data, users can share their data with trusted healthcare professionals regardless of location and voluntarily donate pseudonymized data to research.

A milestone for Smart4Health
The Autonomous Region of Madeira, itself a partner of the consortium, supported the integration of the SESARAM health service with the Smart4Health platform. Pablo Guerrero, Smart4Health Project Leader and Team Lead Collaborative Projects at Data4Life, said: « For many years, Madeira has been a pioneer in health data, interoperability and digital health. » He adds: ‘Smart4Health is an unprecedented pan-European project with a big vision focused on EU citizens and their needs from the very beginning. The integration with SESARAM is a milestone for the project.’

Data4Life is a non-profit health technology organization based in Potsdam (Germany) and technology partner of the Smart4Health consortium. Among other responsibilities, Data4Life developed the platform software, archiving and encryption technology, and enabled data interoperability with the SESARAM system. In order for the data to be effectively linked between SESARAM and the Smart4Health platform, users must register on the Smart4Health platform via the website (app.smart4health.eu). Access is via two-factor authentication and a data key and, for some European Member States, also via electronic identities (eID).

With this project milestone, a main objective was achieved by developing the prototype of a platform enabling a citizen-centric EU-EHR exchange for personalized health data.

To mark the occasion, the consortium invites to the closing event of this phase of the project in Madeira this week, where Pablo Guerrero and other representatives of the Smart4Health partners will provide insights into the project and its current status.

The program can be followed Thursday 23 February from 2pm via YouTube live stream: https://www.youtube.com/Smart4HealthEU.

About SESARAM, EPERAM
The Madeira Health Service, EPERAM (SESARAM, EPERAM) (https://www.sesaram.pt/portal/) is a citizen-focused integrated health care unit, integrating the management of primary care centers and regional hospitals, with a team of more than 6,000 people. As a public legal entity under public law, of an entrepreneurial nature, SESARAM is endowed with administrative, financial and patrimonial autonomy and applies the regime of entrepreneurial public bodies, with the specificities contained in its statutes, internal regulations, as well as in the rules in force for the Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The management of the public health system of the Autonomous Region of Madeira is the responsibility of the Regional Secretariat for Health and Civil Protection (SRS).

Serving more than 260,000 inhabitants and tourists (considering the intense tourist flow of the islands), SESARAM is currently organized around 3 hospitals and 47 public health facilities. SESARAM was formally incorporated on May 27, 2003.

About Smart4Health
Smart4Health (www.smart4health.eu) is a European Union project with the aim of building a platform for electronic health records and far-reaching value-added services for EU citizens across Europe. The Smart4Health consortium consists of 19 partners from medical, social and technical sciences and industry. Smart4Health is funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 826117 with a maximum of 21.8 million euros in 50 months. For more information on partners, please visit https://www.data4life.care/en/projects/smart4health/.

About Data4Life
D4L data4life gGmbH is a non-profit organization funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation. With a team of more than 100 people, Data4Life is working on its vision of a world where health data is ready for research in the fields of public health and personalized medicine to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In pursuit of these goals, Data4Life partners with leading public health institutions, respected medical experts, and renowned research institutions around the world, including the Robert Koch Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut .

Data4Life was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Potsdam, Germany with offices in Berlin and Singapore. Since July 2019, Data4Life has been certified according to ISO 27001 on the basis of IT-Grundschutz by the German Federal Office for Information Security. More details on www.data4life.care.

Contact with the media
Belinda Voigt
media@data4life.care
(+49)162 2729 165