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DocMorris is a leading online pharmacy, marketplace and professional healthcare company with strong brands in Germany and other European countries. DocMorris is active in Spain and France and is the leading marketplace for healthcare and personal care products in Southern Europe. The company operates at the intersection of healthcare, technology and e-commerce and strives to create a digital healthcare ecosystem in which people can manage their health at the click of a button. In 2023, around 1,600 employees with over nine million active customers generated an external revenue of CHF 1,038 million.

The challenge

With the introduction of the e-prescription on 1 January 2024, patients were able to redeem an e-prescription using the gematik app, their electronic health card (eGK in German) or via an e-prescription printout in local pharmacies. The health card option was not initially available for online pharmacies, as this was only intended to be a plug-in solution for a card reader. They were therefore unable to participate in the e-prescription process. The innovative redemption method using eHealth-CardLink for online pharmacy apps has now closed this gap.

The CardLink product makes it possible to access digital applications with the electronic health card without physical eHealth card readers. Patients can use their online pharmacy’s app to redeem their prescription and have their medication delivered. You need an NFC-enabled (Near Field Communication) smartphone to scan your health card in the app and authenticate yourself. 

As one of the leading online pharmacies in Germany, DocMorris had set itself the goal of being one of the first providers to obtain the gematik authorisation for eHealth-CardLink as a new gematik feature of its app. In addition to the tight time constrains, the test requirements and test windows specified by the gematik posed a challenge. The latter had to be adhered to in order to obtain a timely approval. achelos was selected as partner for implementing the mandatory gematik tests (EvT).

"We were able to rely on the commitment and expertise of achelos at all times and were delighted to obtain the approval within the planned time frame thanks to their support." Katrin Rinder, Director Rx Services, DocMorris

Solution and result

Security and test experts from achelos worked with the DocMorris project and development team to implement the gematik requirements. The gematik published a preliminary version of the eHealth-CardLink specification in December 2023, but the final specification was not released until 19 March. Therefore, the provisional specification had to be used for the procedure. The test suite and product were constantly updated and tested to keep pace with the ongoing changes to the specification content. Collaboration was intensive and required a great deal of commitment from everyone involved in order to meet the ambitious deadline. The self-responsible tests (EvT) project centred on the test suite (CardLink Inspector) and card simulation (Virtual Card Kit) from achelos. 

The CardLink Inspector was originally designed for test cases for eHealth card readers and has now been adapted for the specification requirements of the eHealth-CardLink. It checks the requirements from the gematik specification and simulates test cases that gematik prescribes in the authorisation. This tests the numerous requirements that the product must fulfil. The Virtual Card Kit simulates the various card types such as electronic health cards or health professional cards – all SmartCards that are certified by the gematik for the telematics infrastructure. It is based on the specifications of the SmartCards and behaves like one – error messages such as invalid or expired can be displayed. Both tools in combination ensured successful implementation of the self-responsible tests (EvT) in accordance with gematik specifications.

The project started at the beginning of February 2024 and the approval was granted at the beginning of April 2024. Such rapid product approval within just two months is unusual and was made possible thanks to the extremely committed cooperation of all those involved. 

DocMorris is the first manufacturer ever to receive such approval. The technology and gematik expertise of achelos gave DocMorris a decisive head start.