ELGA, official channels, post – government wants to digitally change administration

“We no longer see administration as an obligation of the public to collect, but as an obligation to supply,” said State Secretary for Digitization Florian Tursky (ÖVP) after the cabinet meeting on Thursday. Together with Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens), he presented the package, which includes 117 measures and 36 digitization principles.

App clutter needs to be unified
In principle, digitization in Austria should be more convenient, simpler and more secure – taking into account data protection and accessibility, Tursky emphasized. Official procedures can already be completed on a mobile phone, but there are currently 80 different apps for this. This should be standardized and the “Digitales Amt” app should be relaunched.

Personal evidence with a registration form, extract from the criminal record or birth certificate must in the future be available free of charge via the digital counter. “We’re finally off stamps,” says Tursky. Registered RSa and RSb letters should also be available in the app in the future, without being dependent on the opening hours of the post offices. This information must be accessible using the electronic identity document “ID Austria”, which will soon replace the mobile phone signature. The “ID Austria” must be issued at machines called “Digital Austria Terminals” and, for example, registration certificates must be able to be printed.

Digitization in the healthcare sector
An important focus of the package is digitization in healthcare. Minister Rauch said there was already a boost during the corona pandemic. According to him, there are also good conditions with the digital patient file ELGA and the e-card.

He now envisions that all health data should be available to citizens so that no one would have to “carry printed X-rays around with them”. For example, ELGA will be expanded enormously in the coming years and transformed from an unstructured collection of data into a database. Findings must be recorded in a standardized manner, so that, for example, laboratory values ​​can be compared over a longer period of time. The preparatory work for this is already underway.

It is also envisaged that certain health apps can be prescribed by doctors and the data obtained in this way can be stored in ELGA. Here it remains “with the opt-out option for those who say it’s too delicate for them,” Rauch stressed. The health reporting point 1450 will also be expanded. In any case, the “first gateway to the healthcare system” should not be the hospital’s outpatient clinic, but the digital space, according to the Minister of Health. Digital recording also enables better planning, because hospitals know more about the number of occupants.

Digitization is one of the pillars of healthcare reform that Rauch is aiming for in the course of financial settlement negotiations. By the end of the legislature in the autumn of 2024, the most important pins in the health sector should be in place. Other objectives of the package must be achieved by 2030.

More research on artificial intelligence
Another focus of the “Digital Austria Act” is artificial intelligence: more money should be invested in basic research here. The AI ​​legislation adopted at European level will be implemented earlier in Austria and there will be an AI contact point for citizens. The package also stipulates that future laws must be checked for their suitability for digitization before being assessed – Tursky spoke of a “digi-check”.