​The Fifth Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) Summit opened at the Hong Kong Science Park today (October 15) to provide a platform for global dialogue on policy and implementation issues and sharing of best practices in digital health services among the participants.
      
     Organised by the Food and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India (the incumbent GDHP Chair), and with the support of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, the summit has attracted more than 50 delegates from 18 economies and multinational organisations.
      
     The summit was officially opened by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan; the Secretary of Health, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, Ms Preeti Sudan; the Under Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Chui Tak-yi; and the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, Mr Lav Agarwal. 
      
     Delivering a keynote address at the Inaugural Session, Professor Chan said that health is one of the important elements of the Government's Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong. She said, "We have launched a number of measures to help us address various healthcare challenges, including enhancing primary healthcare and disease prevention, improving public healthcare services and promoting collaboration between the public and private sectors. These are all grand initiatives that require various contributing factors for their success. Innovation and technology has a vital role and this is where digital health comes into play."
      
     She pointed out that the territory-wide Electronic Health Record Sharing System, launched by the Government in March 2016, plays an instrumental role in the implementation of these initiatives by facilitating the cross-sector sharing of patient health data and keeping of lifelong medical records.
      
     During the summit, participants will have discussions under the themes of "Policy Environments", "Interoperability", "Clinical and Consumer Engagement", "Evidence and Evaluation" and "Cyber Security". The summit will continue and conclude tomorrow.
      
     The GDHP is an international collaboration of governments, healthcare organisations and multinational organisations dedicated to improving the health and well-being of people through the best use of evidence-based digital technologies.

Ends/Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Issued at HKT 15:40

NNNN