Swiss eHealth Barometer 2025: Digitalisation yes – but with trust, benefits and clear implementation

Population: Digitalisation as an opportunity – but not at any price

The key findings of the population survey (1,963 Swiss residents aged 16 and over) are as follows:

Openness with reservations: A majority see digital healthcare solutions as an opportunity to improve access, efficiency and quality of care. However, there are significant concerns about data protection and the potential alienation caused by too much technology.

EPD is considered useful but not user-friendly: The population sees the electronic patient record (EPD) as a useful aid, especially in emergencies. Nevertheless, its use remains low. Data protection concerns, administrative hurdles and the belief that professionals work well together even without EPD are hindering its uptake.

Personal contact remains central: the population wants digital support, not a replacement. Older people are particularly sceptical about digitalisation, while younger people are more affluent and tend to trust digital solutions.

Trust issue: 83 percent would grant their treating physicians full access to their health data. In contrast, approval remains significantly lower among health insurance companies, research institutions, public authorities and private companies. There is recognisable potential for limited access (e.g. anonymised data) at health insurance companies, research institutions and public authorities.

Healthcare professionals: benefits recognised, implementation critical

The key findings of the survey of healthcare professionals (n=1,419), i.e. doctors, IT managers in hospitals and cantonal officials, are as follows:

Digital documentation established: Electronic medical records (eKG) are widespread in doctors’ practices and are mostly viewed positively. Hospital information systems (HIS) continue to face criticism, mainly due to a lack of support in everyday work.

Scepticism towards the EPD: The use of the EPD is often motivated by legal requirements. Many specialists – especially in German-speaking Switzerland and among general practitioners – doubt its practical usefulness. Recommendations of the EPD to patients are rare.

Interfaces remain a challenge: While medical systems usually work well internally, there are problems with interoperability with other players. Uniform, well-functioning interfaces are still the exception.

DigiSanté is known to key players, but not (yet) to doctors: The national programme is familiar to cantonal administrations and IT managers in hospitals, but hardly known to doctors. The priority in the coming years will be on digital data exchange, particularly for medication and prescription data, laboratory orders and findings, and discharge reports.