In December 2025, there was a sharp increase in usage, coinciding with the flu season and the correspondingly high incidence of the virus. Furthermore, on March 26, BITMARCK and RISE made the new version of the ePA available in the reference environment ahead of the deadline. Among other things, new features of the ePA enhance the digitally supported medication process.

The number of logins by insured persons stood at 1.2 million in December, representing a 54 percent increase compared with November. Service providers uploaded 6.5 million documents to the ePA in December, 48 percent more than in November. By February, both insured person logins and document uploads had returned to roughly the same levels as before the flu outbreak. Throughout December, January and February, the ePA remained consistently stable, with an average availability of 99.9 percent.

Andreas Strausfeld, chairman of the BITMARCK Executive Board: “The electronic patient record is being used: access figures are high during the flu season and drop again when incidence rates return to normal. Together with our partner RISE, we are helping to embed the ePA even more firmly into everyday healthcare practice and are making the new version available on schedule. However, to make the ePA the linchpin of digital healthcare, it must be continuously expanded with functions that offer users even greater added value. Here, the potential of AI applications within the ePA must be taken into account and promoted.”

Dr Christian Schanes, member of the management board at RISE: “The latest usage figures show that our ePA is stable, reliable and capable of performing well even under heavy load. Thanks to our mature and future-proof architecture, the new version is once again being delivered ahead of schedule. Our aim, together with our partner BITMARCK, is both to further increase the tangible added value in day-to-day healthcare provision and to continuously develop the technical quality and future-proofing of the platform.”

ePA is now available in the reference environment, four days before the deadline

With the release of the new version 3.1.3, RISE and BITMARCK are enabling PVS manufacturers to connect to the ePA. The new version will be made available for testing in the reference environment as early as March 26 – four days before the deadline. In doing so, both partners are once again demonstrating their ability to implement regulatory and technical requirements reliably and on schedule. At the same time, they are not only ensuring stable operation but are also actively driving forward the further development of the ePA as a central component of digital healthcare provision.

New digitally supported medication process in ePA version 3.1.3

The new version of the ePA introduces a range of new features. Of particular relevance to insured persons is the digitally supported medication process, which is now complete with an electronic medication list and an electronic medication plan. Information on prescribed and over-the-counter medications, as well as allergies, can now be stored in full within the ePA and incorporated into treatment. Push notifications are also now available. By the end of 2026, full-text searches within stored documents and the sharing of data for research purposes will also be enabled.

About RISE (Research Industrial Systems Engineering):

As a manufacturer and driver of digital technologies from Europe for Europe and the entire digital world, the IT company RISE, which was founded more than 20 years ago as an R&D company from the Vienna University of Technology, can point to leading references, long-standing customers, key technologies, solid products and in-depth expertise in sectors such as healthcare, mobility, finance, retail, administration, manufacturing, industry and IT security. RISE enables partners to be solid innovators and digital transformers, while at the same time reliably integrating good old procedural and existing knowledge from established companies and institutions.

Since 2006, RISE has played a leading role in setting up the telematics infrastructure (TI) in the German healthcare system and has brought numerous components and services to approval. RISE is currently responsible for the ongoing expansion of the RISE Highspeed-Konnektor and TI-Gateway, the development of over 22 million highly secure patient files (ePA) for more than 80 statutory and private insurance companies, a service for secure e-mail communication between doctors (KIM), the TI's central identity provider (IDP) for access control to specialist services such as the electronic prescription (e-prescription), several federated IDPs and numerous other special components in the TI. RISE supplies doctors' surgeries, pharmacies and many hospitals with infrastructure software and provides end-to-end operation, maintenance and further development. In addition to ePA deliveries to statutory health insurers, RISE equips a growing number of private health insurance customers with ePA technology and a future-proof health ID.

As a global software construction company as well as a system manufacturer and integrator, RISE has key experience, technologies and components for nationwide and Europe-wide solutions in many digitalization sectors such as gov-tech, insurance, payment and banking, logistics, transport, mobility, public administration, industrial IoT, IT security technology, cell phone security or digital ID.

RISE supplies business partners as a technology manufacturer or integrator and generally leaves broad-based communication to its customers and partners. Please send detailed information on technical, project, technology and research topics by e-mail to:
7a786f79796f4a7863796f277d6578666e24696567. The RISE Group operates in Germany with four companies in the field of substantial digitalization.

About BITMARCK:

As a leading digitalization partner for statutory health insurance, BITMARCK drives the digital transformation in the industry with innovative products and services. This is based on the statutory health insurance software standard BITMARCK_21c|ng, which is used by the affiliated health insurance funds. The group’s clients include company and guild health insurance funds, as well as DAK-Gesundheit and other alternative health insurance funds—over 30,000 employees and approximately 35 million insured individuals in the statutory health insurance system benefit from BITMARCK’s IT services, and more than 80 percent of German statutory health insurance funds are clients of the group. With more than 1,900 employees, BITMARCK generates annual revenue of over half a billion euros.