eHR Sharing System Development Roadmap
Development of the Electronic Health Record (eHR) Sharing System will be divided into three major components:
1. eHR sharing infrastructure core component
To design and build the core eHR sharing infrastructure for interconnecting between individual electronic medical/patient record (eMR/ePR) systems adopted by individual healthcare providers, and for providing functions related to eHR sharing to these systems. These functions include, among others, data storage in and data exchange between these systems, and access to and retrieval of eHR data of individual patients in various individual systems, such as systems for patient and provider identification or for consent for access, which will be based on common standards to be developed by the public sector in collaboration with the private sector.
2. HA CMS adaptation and extension component
To facilitate the adoption and deployment of Hospital Authority (HA)'s Clinical Management System (CMS) by private healthcare providers, especially private hospitals/clinics which would like to adopt HA's CMS components for their own use with minimal investment and maintenance. This component will facilitate the deployment of eHR systems by IT vendors in private hospitals, private practitioners and healthcare providers which intend to adopt and use the HA systems.
3. Standardisation and interfacing component
To develop technical standards for different healthcare IT systems to interoperate and interconnect through the eHR sharing infrastructure, to advance a validation platform for testing interoperability that could support a future certification scheme for individual eMR/ePR systems of healthcare or IT service providers, to provide technical support for private healthcare providers which already have their own eMR/ePR systems and would like to connect to eHR, and to provide the necessary interface to facilitate such interconnection. This component will facilitate the deployment of eHR systems by private hospitals, private practitioners and other healthcare providers which intend to use their own systems while ensuring compatibility with the sharing infrastructure and interoperability with other eHR systems.