PoPP: RISE receives order from Gematik for proof of patient presence

Gematik, the company responsible for digitalization in healthcare, has commissioned the Austrian company RISE to implement the "Proof of Patient Presence" (PoPP) service. In the future, PoPP is intended to digitally and location-independently prove that a patient is in a so-called treatment context. According to Gematik, this should also "further strengthen the operational stability of the e-prescription". From the end of 2026, the PoPP service will also be available for telemedical treatments.

Currently, proof of insurance status for statutory insured persons is provided by presenting the electronic health card (eGK), which is checked and confirmed online via the insured person master data management (VSDM) to verify that insurance coverage exists. This procedure has proven to be prone to errors.

PoPP is considered a step towards the announced "Zero Trust" architecture, where every single access must be strictly checked and authorized. The local proof of verification is replaced by a cryptographically secured token that confirms the treatment context. This then serves as proof that the eGK was presented. This token is issued by the PoPP service, which according to Gematik will be accessible via the public internet, after successful authentication – for example, by inserting the card or via the health ID – and serves as a time-limited, digital key. Applications such as the e-prescription or the electronic patient record must present this token to gain access to data.

The PoPP token serves as access for all applications of the Telematics Infrastructure (TI), the "health data highway". It not only legitimizes access to e-prescriptions and the electronic patient record (ePA), but will also be required in the future for retrieving insurance data in the planned VSDM 2.0. This will move the insured person master data to a central VSDM service in the planned TI 2.0.

Two stages to full functionality

The first implementation stage is expected to be completed by mid-2026. According to Gematik, PoPP will replace the currently existing procedure, which is based on the VSDM++ verification, originally introduced for retrieving e-prescriptions using the eGK without PIN entry. Later, the PoPP service will also be used for telemedical treatments.

Industry remains skeptical

Michael Baumgärtner, product manager at AOK Systems, still saw open points regarding TI 2.0 and VSDM 2.0 in March 2025 and at that time pointed to the increased complexity of the project. Originally, the launch was planned for early 2025, but he considered dates from mid-2026 to be more realistic and did not expect PoPP to be used nationwide before 2028.

(mack)