$1.4b fund to upgrade health-record sharing 'will benefit all 7m residents'

Marcus Lum

The HK$1.4 billion fund for upgrading the electronic health record sharing system eHealth+ in the next five years is dedicated to the health of all seven million people in Hong Kong, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said.

Lo said the funding would be allocated toward software development services, network security and computer hardware costs, with the aim of creating an integrated medical information infrastructure that encompasses medical data, service delivery and process management.

He said that the HK$1.4 billion investment translates to an average of only HK$200 per person, which he deemed sufficient to build the infrastructure for the entire digital health platform.

Lo stressed the importance of investing adequate resources into health management, saying: "Health is the biggest wealth of the citizens. [The Health Bureau] needs to manage [citizens'] wealth properly, therefore it is a must to invest resources into the system."

Despite the challenges of the project, Lo emphasized the need for Hong Kong to lead as a pioneer in this area.

Lo said specific the development works of eHealth+ include the creation of the "One Health Record," "One Care Journey," "One Digital Front Door to Empowering Tool" and "One Health Data Repository."

He added that eHealth+ would effectively support future trends in medical development, such as smart healthcare, primary healthcare, cross-border healthcare and medical innovation, facilitating seamless connectivity of services from primary prevention to secondary and tertiary treatment.

Lo also mentioned the horizontal integration of public and private healthcare and various services such as social welfare through the eHealth+ software. He expressed the goal of providing lifelong health protection for each citizen.

The eHealth app, which was launched in 2016, has enabled healthcare providers in both the public and private sectors to view and share patients' electronic health records with proper authorization.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in last year's policy address that the government aims to upgrade the system and introduce eHealth+ to provide more comprehensive and personalized services for citizens.