Smart card

What is a Smart Card?

A smart card is a thin piece of plastic the size of a credit card which contains an embedded microprocessor. The microprocessor controls access to the information stored on the card making it securer then a traditional credit card’s magnetic strip. The smart card was first introduced in the 1983 as way to reduce theft with pay phones in Europe.[1] This technology’s ability to securely store information drastically expanded its use to be used as a credit card, customer loyalty programs, store finance and personal health care information as well as many other uses.[2]

National Smart Card Projects

Since the late 1990’s countries have successfully distributed millions of smart cards to its citizens to improve their health care systems. The smart cards contain a variety of patient health, insurance, as well as other social service related information. A few of the smart card projects are:

Austria: In 2005, Austria completed it’s roll out of the ‘e-card’ which replaced there paper health insurance card.[3]

Belgium: In 1998 the Social Information System (SIS) card was rolled out to every citizen over 12 years of age. This smart card contained information related to different social security sectors, such as income and health care. In 2004, the country began rolling out a newer version called the Belgian citizen eID. [4]

France: The Vitale card was first issued to all of it’s citizens in 1998. In 2006, France released the next generation of the Vitale card which contained electronic signatures. [5]

Germany: The electronische Gesundheitskarte (eGK), containing prescription information, was rolled out to all of Germany’s 71 million health insurance customers in 2006. At the time, the project was considered the world’s largest IT project costing 1.6 Billion Euros.[6]

Puerto Rico: In 2005, Puerto Rico issued 2 million smart cards to Medicaid recipients under the Tarjeta Inteligente De Salud program.[7,8]

Taiwan: In 2004, Taiwan replaced the National Health Insurance (NHI) paper card with a smart card containing the patient’s medical history and preventive health management information.[9]

Notes

1. Smart Card [1]

2. What is a Smart Card? [2]

3. AT: Austria launches electronic health insurance card pilot [3]

4. Belgium Strategic perspective [4]

5. National profile for eGovernment IDM initiatives in France [5]

6. German Health Card[6]

7. Axalto wins largest NA healthcare deal[7]

8. Puerto Rico Launches Health Smart Card [8]

9. A story of the NHI card: Its growth and change [9]

Submitted by Mary Ellen Mattson