SWITZERLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tobias Meili and André S. Berne, Wenger Plattner
aims to provide the Federal Council, Cantons and employers with a specific management instrument that determines the conditions within the various care sectors and to monitor in detail the consequences of the measures. The data recorded includes the num- ber of vacancies, completed training courses, attrition rate, care staff count and patient-perceived quality of care. Continued Development of Digitisation of the Swiss Healthcare System Telemedicine solutions thrive and are widely recog- nised in Switzerland. Many companies are active in this sector and provide telemedicine solutions, tele- medical consultations and remote monitoring of vital parameters. Hence, an important part of the Swiss population has already been exposed to telemedicine. By way of example, numerous providers of telemedi- cine services offer health insurance companies the opportunity to serve as their policyholders’ family doc- tors and/or medical gatekeepers. It is to be expected that the spreading of telemedicine services will con- tinue and that telemedicine companies operating in Switzerland will aim for European expansion in the medium term. A further digitisation of the Swiss healthcare system is to be carried out with the programme DigiSanté , which was launched on 1 January 2025. The pro- gramme consists of approximately 50 distinct pro- jects, all designed to advance digital transformation in the healthcare sector. These projects encompass legislative initiatives, software development and the establishment of nationally co-ordinated guidelines for standardisation. Since data constitutes a cen- tral element of digital transformation, standardised data structures and content shall be implemented to ensure that systems work together smoothly (ie, are interoperable) and that information only needs to be recorded once (once-only principle). DigiSanté aims to establish specific regulations for data access and utilisation by various stakeholders, alongside the dig- itisation and co-ordination of governmental services and the provision of centralised services, including registers, interfaces and identifiers. Such measures shall be implemented not only when providing medical services but also for billing proce-
dures. Thus, envisaged amendments to the HIA that are currently undergoing the consultation process also aim to uphold the once-only principle in matters of social insurance law. Service providers of inpatient hospital care shall in the future be obliged to centrally transmit certain data to a platform managed by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Since the once-only principle has not been consistently applied so far, hos- pitals frequently need to submit identical data multiple times to various authorities. By establishing the once- only principle in the future, the revision seeks to elimi- nate redundant surveys, to organise data flows more transparently, and to enhance and access potential applications of the data. To promote the use of electronic patient records (EPRs) in Switzerland, the Federal Electronic Patient Record Act (EPRA) came into force in April 2017 with the goal that all patient records are maintained exclu- sively digitally and that all vital health documents (eg, nursing and hospital reports, examination results, X-rays) are centrally stored and securely shareable among healthcare professionals. However, its spread was hindered by the voluntary nature of its use and limited funding. Consequently, the implementation was slow although there was great public interest and extensive media coverage. To accelerate digitisation, the Federal Council decided in November 2025 to replace the existing EPR model with a newly estab- lished electronic health dossier (E-HD), designed to consolidate individual health data and mandate its use by healthcare professionals, while granting patients complete control over access. The proposed Fed- eral Electronic Health Dossier Act, already submitted to Parliament for deliberation, shall delineate roles, competencies and funds, designating central infra- structure administration to the Federal Council and implementation to the Cantons. Currently, the target implementation date of the E-HD is around 2030. Digitisation also affects organ donation. In a refer- endum held on 15 May 2022, voters approved an amendment to the Transplantation Act introducing an opt-out system: As soon as the law comes into effect, it will in principle be possible to remove organs, tis- sues and cells from persons after their death, provided that they did not object to this during their lifetime (nevertheless numerous exceptions will persist). Dig-
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