Dr. Axel Schroeder, deputy chairman of the board of the Ärztegenossenschaft Nord eG (äg Nord), speaks in this video blog about the current topic of the mandatory "electronic patient file". "Just this week, the Minister of Health presented drafts of a digitization and a health data protection law. A call for a "new start to digitization? I would say a forced implementation of a 20-year-old idea," says Schroeder. "With this paper (295 in total - you can take your time to read it...), the expert council hopes to rekindle enthusiasm among doctors and patients - because only 1 percent of those with statutory insurance voluntarily created the electronic patient file introduced two years ago. (...) We have no idea how many have used it. Will this be a big hit or is it just pure digital activism again? OK, it's just a draft and not yet a legislative proposal... so it says, "nip it in the bud!" We cannot afford any more back and forth in our practices. I do not even want to talk about technical errors. The ideas and reforms that were introduced in terms of healthcare under Karl Lauterbach's traffic light coalition were often only "half-measures"... had to be withdrawn and changed and let's be honest... This has so far been of little use to us in the medical care of our patients, both in clinics and in practices. This will not solve our problems," says Schroeder. Schroeder continues: "I am just thinking of the Financial Stabilization Act, but also at the beginning of the year, the bold announcement that we would dare to reduce bureaucracy, and even talk of an upcoming debureaucratization law. Is digitization supposed to fix that? The jack of all trades, is all I can say. And then there is the obligation for us doctors and insured persons to have electronic patient records. It is not surprising that defeatism is spreading here when it comes to state interference. I am just reminding you of the obligation to record master data. The bad experiences with the electronic insurance card, the handling of the electronic doctor's ID card, the interoperability of the hardware and the practice management systems, but also applications of the medication plan, the electronic prescription, the electronic certificate of incapacity for work, were anything but convincing," says Schroeder. "We doctors are not opposed to digitization and even artificial intelligence in medical care. It has arrived in medicine and is established in practice and clinics, including the use of health data in health care research. Only state coercion and implementation make this more difficult. Requirements, administrative files, lack of infrastructure, financing. I would just like to point out the Cancer Registry Act. The state, and this is my opinion, has to provide the framework, structures and financing. Those involved in health care have to implement it..." says Schroeder.