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The Government today (November 12) invited the information technology (IT) sector to submit partnership proposals to develop healthcare IT solutions contributing to the development of electronic health records' (eHR) sharing in Hong Kong.
A Government spokesman said: "This marks the launch of the second stage of the eHR engagement initiative (EEI), a major government step to put in place an essential infrastructure for implementing healthcare reform."
The Government is committed to developing a territory-wide patient-oriented eHR sharing system for healthcare professionals in both public and private sectors to access, store and retrieve patients' health records, to realise the concept "records follow patients".
With the development of eHR, patients' health information can be shared instantaneously. eHR sharing will enable the provision of appropriate and timely treatment for patients. This will remove the boundaries between healthcare professions or sectors that provide differing levels of care.
"Under the eHR Programme, patient participation will be on a voluntary basis and sharing of patients' health records is subject to patients' express and informed consent, as well as proper authorisation of access to the system," the spokesman added.
The Government launched the first stage EEI in October last year, and received a very good response, with more than 50 partnership proposals submitted by private healthcare and related sectors. Taking into account the partnership projects and development needs raised by private healthcare stakeholders during the first stage EEI, the Government wishes to engage IT professional bodies and private IT vendors in the second stage EEI to further explore ideas or proposals contributing to eHR development.
The spokesman said: "While the Government will take a leading role, the engagement and participation of private healthcare and IT service providers are crucial to our success in building up the eHR sharing system in Hong Kong."
Interested IT professional bodies and private IT vendors are invited to submit their proposals by January 31, 2011. The Food and Health Bureau will hold two EEI stakeholder forums on November 23 and December 6, 2010 to brief stakeholders on the details of the invitation exercise. The EEI invitation document and registration form for stakeholder forums can be downloaded from the eHealth Record Office website at www.ehealth.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, November 12, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:02
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