Strategies for a Systematical Patient Identification

The growing demand for informational self-determination of patients will not only result in a stronger participation in therapeutic decision making hence causing a change in the physician-patient-relationship, but also require more complex information logistics for health care providers. In this context, a core challenge is the patient identification in a heterogeneous system of diverse ICT solutions. This article presents first approaches how to solve problems arising from insufficient patient identification, both from a single actor’s perspective as well as the health network perspective. In a first step, organisation internal as well as cross-organizational mechanisms for patient identification are presented. In a second step, systematic and integrated strategies are discussed. This paper concludes with an outlook on future research questions in this field.