Hong Kong’s eHealth system aims to connect with half of private medical providers within the year

Deputy health secretary Sam Hui says private sector accounts for more than 60 per cent of record views, but only contributes less than 1 per cent of data uploaded

Authorities working with private medical sector and third-party clinical management system suppliers to synchronise sharing of patient data

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Placards promoting Hong Kong’s “eHealth” system, which will be upgraded at a cost of HK$1.4 billion. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 8:30am, 8 Apr 2024Updated: 9:11am, 8 Apr 2024

Hong Kong’s electronic health record platform is expected to link up with systems used by more than half of the city’s private medical service providers within the year, ensuring the seamless transfer of data among doctors, authorities have said.

Deputy Secretary for Health Sam Hui Chark-shum said authorities hoped the move could help to combat the limited number of patient records from private healthcare providers being shared to the “eHealth” system.

Government figures earlier showed that private health practitioners accounted for more than 60 per cent of record views, despite contributing data at an “extremely low” rate of below 1 per cent.

“Healthcare providers may not see the need to upload the patient data, or they may have seen it and agree with our policy directions, but they have yet to have the correct tool for uploading,” he told the Post.

Hong Kong rolled out the eHealth platform in March of 2016, which allows public and private healthcare providers to view and share patients’ electronic records, with the latter’s permission.

But private healthcare providers currently have few options in terms of clinical management systems (CMS) that allow them to simultaneously upload data to their own systems and the government’s.