Press News

Budapest, July 18, 2006

Following the five-year further training period that ended in 2005, the Hungarian Chamber of Physicians (MOK) is issuing a new membership card under an extensive cooperation scheme with a new sponsor. It is a plastic card with a chip which represents the latest technology available, which combines the advantages of an elegant identity card and a modern personal IT tool. The chip cards produced by T-Com and T-Online with the involvement of Dimenzió Health Fund and Medismart Kft., can later this summer be enabled for electronic signature too.

Gábor Héjjas, head of T-Com’s Residential Services Division, today formally presented to the MOK president his own membership card in a symbolic gesture where his card represented the entire membership of MOK.
Negotiations first started between the Magyar Telekom Group (then called Matáv Group) and the Hungarian Chamber of Physicians in 2004, and the result was a high-profile cooperation agreement offering wide opportunities for both parties. One major tangible product of this cooperation is the electronic chipcard introduced by this summer. The doctors have already been notified that their cards have been manufactured and will shortly be delivered to them by post. Several services of the Magyar Telekom Group can also be purchased at a discount with the card.
The chipcard with Magyar Telekom’s e-Szignó (electronic signature) service will greatly help the work of doctors and consequently improve the efficiency of medical care. In the healing processes high-level data security is essential, and so is the identification of the persons authorized to access the data: one of the most advanced methods known today for ensuring all this is the use of chipcards. The documents signed with an electronic signature are authentic and legally acceptable, so the electronic signature enables doctors to electronically enter and authenticate medicare information. An X-ray physician, for example, can give opinion on X-ray shots and electronically authenticate and enter the data in the hospital database also when he is working outside the hospital.
It is important to note that in Hungary medical practice is subject to MOK membership. Since the membership cards are issued on the basis of the data stored in the MOK database, it can be easily controlled whether the person who electronically signed a given document is authorized to pursue medical practice.
The card can also be used to identify the bearer physician in the social security systems. It is suitable for the authentication of data exchange between the physician and the National Health Insurance Fund (OEP), it can be adjusted to all electronic data provision systems of OEP without any additional tool or expenditure so in future electronic prescriptions can also be introduced.