A man in a medical laboratory operates a tablet

Health Card: smart card, secure patient data

We all know about the amazing breakthroughs in the medical industry and the stunning advancements made in the healthcare ecosystem. Everyone also knows that good health costs money, and a lot of it. In this sector, however, we have to deal with the most sensitive data we have – our personal identity. We offer a secure smart card solution that allows health networks to cut costs and improve patient healthcare. Taking a lock-and-key approach to securing identities, we offer two smart cards, each with a chip: one for patients, and one for health professionals. Both can be managed smoothly with our powerful Card Application Managing System for card issuers.

Market overview

Advanced medicine and technology are boosting life expectancy. As people get older, however, they need more frequent and more expensive healthcare. At the same time, patients today see a wider range of doctors and specialists than ever before. Their often-redundant medical records are scattered across many different practices and medical offices in the healthcare system.

The world over, healthcare systems and their players are under pressure to save money. The cost explosion has become a critical issue for governments, insurance companies, hospitals, healthcare providers, pharmacies, and many others. Costs for medical services are rising for patients too. Our insurances absorb at least some of the costs related to emergency care, broken bones, ongoing treatment, check-ups, and hundreds of other kinds of care. Ideally, measures to cut costs and to optimize the healthcare system should benefit all stakeholders.

Insurance card with the inscription 'DAK Gesundheitskarte'.

Part of the solution is to let technology and digitization play out their advantages. One of the most basic and vastly successful measures in the healthcare environment is the introduction of card-based e-health networks. Smart health cards manage patient identity and give practitioners and pharmacists secure access to their medical records.

Image of a Smart Health Card from G+D with the inscription 'Pharmacist Card'.

G+D’s smart health cards improve communication between practitioners and enhance the quality of healthcare. They also streamline processes and reduce fraud. By enriching card-based, smart chip technology with medical applications and data, we have created an interoperable system that offers economic advantages to health insurance providers and improves usability for everyone. But most importantly, we provide high levels of security and privacy protection with our smart health cards, such as identification with 100 percent certainty.

Our smart health cards:

  • Enable configuration of a telematics infrastructure
  • Provide a secure, multi-application platform
  • Simplify and streamline administration
  • Reduce misuse by participants in the healthcare ecosystem
  • Allow access to complete medical records
  • Improve quality of treatment

Healthcare spending losses to fraud and abuse total $272 billion a year, but no single part of the healthcare system is responsible. Each stage of healthcare has risks of fraud, errors, waste and abuse. These vulnerabilities can be reduced at every stage by implementing an identity management system based on smart card technology.

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Trust is a must: a system to guarantee patient data security

The key to more trust between doctors and patients within the telematics infrastructure is card-controlled access.

A G+D Smart Health card is inserted in a card reader

Our Patient Data Cards standardize interactions between patients and healthcare professionals, from identification to medical record access. Many issuers also use patient smart cards to promote healthy behaviors: bonus program applications installed on the smart card chip offer patients incentives to kick bad habits or successfully complete specific treatments.

Only authorized physicians, dentists, and pharmacists can access patient card information and records in the healthcare telematics infrastructure. To do so, they need the right key – the Electronic Health Professional Card (HPC). Certificates determine who may access the patient’s data. 

However, access still requires the patient's express permission. PIN-based authentication, encryption, and digital signatures protect communication between the healthcare professional's smart card and the telematics infrastructure.

For smart card-based participation in the telematics infrastructure, we offer Secure Module Cards (SMCs). Generally, SMCs in combination with a connector and card terminal are required to access the telematics infrastructure. The technology identifies and authenticates the institution, and encrypts communications.

Our smart health cards support:

  • Electronic patient records
  • E-prescriptions, including medication history for interaction check
  • Records on vaccinations and pregnancy
  • Emergency data and organ donor ID
  • Cost tracking and bonus programs

Related solutions

A man in protective medical clothing operates a computer-simulated medical application

Health solutions

Our healthcare offering empowers the industry to plan its core strategic business – for today and the future. We provide unique, end-to-end configurations encompassing certification, production, and development at all levels of the healthcare ecosystem. Most importantly, our solutions are extremely safe and easy to handle.

A medical professional operates a medical program on a laptop computer

Health Card Application Management System

Our management system is a high-performance platform with 24/7 data center availability for smart card issuers, including health insurance providers. With our Health Card Application Management System, you can take care of the full lifecycle of your cards – from initial personalization to return, and every step in between.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about our end-to-end business solutions or about our company, seek expert advice, or want to give us your feedback, our team is here to support you, anytime.