Imagine you have an accident in another country. The emergency doctor does not know you, does not speak your language and has, perhaps, one minute to find out whether you are allergic to anything, what medications you take and what conditions you have. They have no time for a 200-page record, even if you had it with you. They need one page, in their format, in their language.
That is exactly what the International Patient Summary (IPS) is: a short, standard document designed for unplanned care, which any compliant medical system can read and display in its own language. This guide explains what it contains, who defined it, where it is used and how to get yours from your record, without jargon.
What the IPS is, in short
The IPS is an international standard (EN 17269 in Europe, ISO 27269 worldwide) that says which minimum information a summary of a person's health must contain, plus an HL7 technical guide that says how to write that summary as a FHIR document. It has been developed since 2017 by HL7 International together with CEN, the European standards body, building on the experience of exchanging summaries between EU countries.
The key word is "unplanned". The IPS is not the full record and does not want to be. It is what a foreign doctor needs to know to treat you safely: what they cannot give you, what you already take, what you suffer from, what you are vaccinated against. It is "minimal but not minimalist", as the standard puts it: short, but with every piece of information coded, so it is understood without translation.
What it contains, exactly
The standard divides the content into three levels.
Required: the three safety lists
- Allergies and intolerances: what you react to, how severely, what happened. If you have no known allergy, the document says so explicitly ("no known allergies"), which is as valuable to the doctor as a list.
- Current medication: what you take, in which dose, how often, since when. With ATC codes, so the active substance is recognised regardless of the brand name in your country.
- Problem list: active and relevant conditions (diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, kidney failure, heart disease), with ICD-10 or SNOMED codes.
These three sections must always exist, even if they are empty or "unknown". An IPS without them is not valid.
Recommended: what changes decisions
- Immunizations: what you had, when. Tetanus, hepatitis B, COVID-19, influenza; for an emergency doctor tetanus matters most, for an admission, hepatitis.
- Past procedures: operations, with the year.
- Medical devices: pacemaker, prostheses, stents, insulin pump, cochlear implant. Some completely change which investigations are possible (MRI, for example).
- Relevant laboratory results: not every test in your life, but those that matter for safety: blood group, kidney function, INR for people on anticoagulants, HbA1c for people with diabetes.
Optional: context
Recent vital signs, history of past illnesses, pregnancy (and expected delivery date), social history (smoking, alcohol), functional status (disabilities, dependence on care), plan of care, advance directives. They are not required, but a good IPS includes them when relevant.
Beyond the content, the document says who created it (a doctor, a system, the patient themselves) and when, so the doctor reading it knows how far to rely on it.
Why an IPS, and not a PDF or a photo
A PDF with "allergies: penicillin, medications: metformin 500 mg" seems enough. It is not, for three reasons.
Language. An IPS is coded: "penicillin" is a SNOMED code, "metformin" an ATC code, "type 2 diabetes" an ICD-10 code. The hospital system in Lisbon displays the codes in Portuguese. Your PDF in English stays in English.
Structure. The doctor's system can import the medications from the IPS straight into its own list, check interactions with what it wants to prescribe, put an allergy alert on the chart. It can do none of that from a PDF.
Trust. An IPS says who produced it and when. A photo of a handwritten list says nothing. In an emergency the doctor treats with maximum caution anyway, but a structured, dated document with provenance lets them decide faster.
Where it is already used
- The European Union. Patient summaries exchanged between countries through the MyHealth@EU infrastructure (formerly eHDSI) are aligned with the IPS. A patient from Romania treated in Spain, or the other way round, can have their summary read in the local system, in the local language. The EHDS regulation makes the patient summary one of the priority categories every member state must be able to exchange.
- The World Health Organization. The Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN), successor to the EU COVID certificate, adopted the IPS as the format for health summaries portable across borders.
- The United States. The IPS is included in interoperability guidance and produced by major hospital systems; Apple Health can import FHIR summaries.
- Argentina, Australia, Japan, Canada and others have national or pilot projects with the IPS, often linked to medical tourism and international events.
How to get your IPS
It depends on where your data is.
From the national system. In some EU countries the patient summary is generated automatically from the national record and can be downloaded from the patient portal or sent on request to a hospital in another country. In others it is not yet available to the patient directly. Check your country's health portal.
From your doctor. A doctor with a modern system can export a FHIR summary. Not all can, and not all know they can; ask.
From your personal record. This is where you have the most control. An app that keeps your digital medical record as FHIR, with standard codes, can generate an IPS in seconds from the data you entered. The quality of the summary is the quality of the record: if medications have doses and allergies have severity, the IPS is useful; if they are free text, the IPS is a list.
How to keep it with you
The IPS has to be accessible when you, perhaps, are not: unconscious, without an unlocked phone, without internet. Practical options, from the simplest:
- Emergency card on the lock screen. The five most important lines (allergies, medications, conditions, emergency contact, blood group), visible without unlocking. On iPhone through the Medical ID in Health; on Android through Emergency information; medical record apps often have their own card.
- QR code. The full IPS, or a link to it, in a QR code on your phone, on a card in your wallet or on a bracelet. A doctor scans it and sees the summary, in their language. Some implementations even allow direct import into the hospital system.
- File. The IPS as a FHIR file (JSON) and as a readable PDF, saved on your phone and somewhere your family can reach. The FHIR file is for systems; the PDF, for people.
- Access given in advance. If your app allows it, give permanent access to your emergency contact and your family doctor, so they can pass it on in your place.
When to update it
An old IPS can be more dangerous than none: an allergy discovered last year, an anticoagulant started three months ago. The simple rule: regenerate the IPS at every change of medication, new diagnosis or new allergy, and check it before a trip, a planned admission or a procedure. If your record is kept up to date, the IPS is generated on the spot and the rule becomes "check it twice a year".
How Anpheros helps
Anpheros Daily generates the IPS directly from your FHIR R4 record, with the standard codes (ATC for medications, ICD-10 for conditions, SNOMED for allergies, LOINC for lab results), as a FHIR document and as a PDF. The summary is validated with the official HL7 validator, with zero errors, which means any compliant system can import it. The emergency card in the app shows the essentials without unlocking, and family members you have given access to can open the summary in your place. For developers and clinics, the same summary is available through the standard FHIR $summary operation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the IPS the same as the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)?
No. The European card proves you are insured and that your treatment will be reimbursed. The IPS tells the doctor what conditions you have, what you take and what you are allergic to. They are complementary: one pays, the other informs.
Can I write my own IPS?
Yes, and it is better than nothing. The standard allows the author to be the patient, and the document says so. A doctor will treat the information as "patient-reported" and verify it where they can. If an app generates the IPS from your coded data, its quality is the quality of the data you entered.
What if I have no allergies and take no medication?
Say so explicitly. An IPS with "no known allergies" and "no current medication" is a valid and useful document: the doctor knows it was checked, not that the information is missing.
Do doctors know how to read an IPS?
Their systems do, if they are FHIR-compliant; the doctor sees the summary displayed in the interface they use every day. Where the system does not import the IPS, the readable PDF remains plan B, which is why it is good to have both.
The IPS contains sensitive data. Is it safe to carry it?
It contains exactly the information you would want an emergency doctor to have, and nothing unnecessary. On your phone, the emergency card shows only the essentials; the full IPS sits behind the lock or a QR code you show yourself. Do not upload it to public storage services and do not send it over unencrypted channels.
Keep your medical record with you
Anpheros Daily keeps symptoms, lab results, medications and documents in one place, in a standard format, under your control. The Basic plan is free.