The Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS), developed and operated by the Food and Health Bureau (FHB) and the Hospital Authority (HA), has won the Innovative eHealth Solutions Award of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Excellence Awards 2018.

     The Commissioner for the Electronic Health Record of the FHB, Ms Ida Lee, and Senior Systems Manager (Electronic Health Systems Development) of the HA, Mr Hudson Chan, received the award in Hyderabad, India, yesterday (February 19).

     Ms Lee said, "As a key component of Hong Kong's healthcare system, the eHRSS provides the necessary information technology infrastructure for facilitating the two-way sharing of patient health records among public and private healthcare providers (HCPs) in Hong Kong. It helps enhance continuity of care for patients and improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services. It also plays a role in promoting primary care and medical-social collaboration.

     "We are glad that the eHRSS is gaining increasing popularity in the community. It is also encouraging that the eHRSS, with concerted efforts from Hong Kong patients, healthcare professionals and ICT practitioners, has once again acquired international recognition.

     "In addition to the technical side - availability, stability and system security - the eHRSS has been developed with a human touch. Since the very beginning, we have worked in close collaboration with our stakeholders and considered their clinical and workflow needs with a view to developing a practical, user-friendly and sustainable system." 

     The Government-led, territory-wide eHRSS was launched in March 2016. With patients' informed consent, HCPs in both the public and private sectors can view and share their electronic health records in the provision of healthcare services on a need-to-know basis. Registration by both patients and HCPs is voluntary, free and easy.

     As at mid-February 2018, over 690 000 patients had already registered with the system. As for HCPs, the HA, the Department of Health and over 1 470 private HCPs (including all 12 local private hospitals) had joined the system.

     The Stage Two Development of the eHRSS commenced in July 2017 to bring greater benefits to users. The major areas of work include broadening the scope of sharable data under the system, enhancing patients' choice over the scope of data sharing, and facilitating their access to some of the data in the system.

     The WITSA is a leading international alliance of the global ICT industry with members from over 80 economies representing more than 90 per cent of the world ICT market. The Innovative eHealth Solutions Award is one of the seven categories of the WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards, and commends selected individuals or organisations that have made remarkable and successful efforts in utilising ICT to promote health and healthcare for the benefit of society, governments, individuals, organisations and the private sector.

Ends/Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Issued at HKT 11:15

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