Powered by the TIC Salut Social Foundation
Since 2023, citizens in Catalonia can have access to a summary of their clinical data by downloading the data from La Meva Salut and through the Blue Button. The TIC Salut Social Foundation will provide Catalonian citizens with the Blue Button solution and ensure its proper functioning.
Progress made in the private sector
In December 2023, the foundation signed these collaboration agreements with the main associations representing the private healthcare sector in Catalonia: ACES (the Catalan Association of Health Entities) and La Unió (the Association of Health and Social Entities).
In conjunction with the TIC Salut Social Foundation, ACES 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 as from 2024 were defined. Now, the deployment is being prepared for the effective implementation and use of the Blue Button. It is the foundation's role to provide the solution and ensure its proper functioning, by taking on the tasks of maintenance and technological evolution of the functionality.
Image source: TIC Salut Social Foundation website
Data in the service of people
The ultimate goal of the Blue Button is for citizens to have access to their health data regardless of where the data were generated, whether in the public sector or private sector. Access and download will be carried out from the specific health platforms of the provider entities. Thus, the three organisations - ACES, La Unió, and the foundation - are joining forces to ensure that the citizens of Catalonia have access to their clinical information in a more complete and integrated manner.
It has been crucial to take a step forward to ensure the connection and cooperation between the public and private sectors. This action will facilitate the ability of individuals to download their data successfully from the public health system and guarantee digital portability and interoperability between systems.
The initiative plans to initiate the deployment of this functionality among users of the private sector during 2024: it will generate the first performance metrics for analysis that are focused on continuous improvement.
Short-Term Horizons
The journey of the Blue Button to La Meva Salut does not end here. Starting in 2024, the TIC Social Health Foundation - representing the Health System of Catalonia and the Ministry of Health - has begun to participate in the xShare project.
xShare is a project funded through competitive funds from the Horizon Europe programme. 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 the European (Yellow) Button and generate favourable evidence for the potential adoption of this solution in the remaining autonomous communities of the Spanish state.
What's in it for EHTEL members
By following what Catalonia is doing, there is plenty to learn about what works well when implementing and applying the Blue Button initiative! Follow what TIC Salut Social Foundation by visiting their website.
