VILNIUS — As part of the Lithuanian Health Ministry’s e-health system 2009-2015 development program, patient records in Lithuania will be converted from paper records to digital records in an effort to make information easier to share and therefore help diagnose patients faster.

“Clearly, the Lithuanian e-health system, with the center [of concern] being the patient, will affect the whole health care process — from the provision of services to management and accounting,” Minister of Health, Algis Čaplikas said in a press release.

Čaplikas said the upgrades will just be an expansion on the existing system, which has been test run already.

The system will create a new modern technology-based health care services, improve service quality and availability, he said.

The Ministry said the core aim of the plan is the creation of the kernel. The kernel is an electronic database, which will contain the medical history of every patient nationwide.

Country medical institutions will integrate their information systems in the kernel and exchange information about the patient’s medical condition, complete medical tests and visual material.

Eighty-five percent of the funding for the 107 million litai (€31 million) program comes from the European Union. The rest is derived from state and municipal funds, health care institutions, international programs and projects funds and private equity investments.