The Regional Secretary for Health attended today the official connection of the Azores to the Health Data Platform (PDS) at the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital. This service provides access to the clinical records of patients from any regional or national hospital or health centre.

"The installation of the PDS service on the nine islands will improve and reinforce the sharing of clinical information between different Azorean health institutions and provide all national institutions using this platform with access to these data," said Luís Cabral.

Any doctor will have access to the Health Data Platform through the Health Professional Portal (PDS-PP) and consult the patients' clinical records, namely their medical history, prescriptions, previous tests, including those done at other health units, and allergies. Hence, doctors will be able to make "a faster diagnosis and prescribe a therapy that is more suited" to the patients' needs.

This service will allow the access to the clinical data of an Azorean patient who needs to receive treatment at a health unit in Mainland Portugal as well as of citizens from another part of the country who are visiting the Azores and need to receive to receive treatment at regional hospitals and health centres.

According to Luís Cabral, "the access to the platform that was now made official with the Ministry of Health will end with some constraints that occurred in the past when Azorean patients had to receive treatment at health units in Mainland Portugal."

The Horta Hospital was the first health unit to have this system available; the necessary procedures to connect all regional hospitals and health units to the platform are being conducted.

The connection to this platform has been streamlined since the new computer systems installed at most hospitals and health centres are compatible with the national system.

PDS is a computer system provided by the shared services of the Ministry of Health (SPNS), which allows the recording and sharing of clinical information between health professionals and healthcare providers.

Citizens may also access their clinical records at the Health User Portal, through the Citizen Card.