• Home
• GOVERNMENT CXO
• E-GOVERNMENT
• CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
• TAX AND REVENUE MANAGEMENT
• GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
• GREEN GOVERNMENT
• GOVERNMENT DATA MANAGEMENT
• GOVERNMENT SECURITY
• GOVERNMENT CLOUD
• GOVERNMENT ANALYTICS
• GOVERNMENT GIS
• CONNECTED GOVERNMENT
• DIGITAL INCLUSION
• EDUCATION IT
• HEALTHCARE IT

Healthcare IT

Hong Kong starts second stage EHR engagement

By Jianggan Li | 20 December 2010

Hong Kong Government has launched the second stage of its Electronic Health Record (eHR) Engagement Initiative (EEI), with two briefing sessions held recently to invite the IT sector in the territory to submit partnership proposals for eHR partnership.

Two briefing sessions were held recently, where the Government explained to the IT sector background and requirements of the partnership proposals, including pilot projects and interface projects that “would facilitate the development of electronic medical/patient record (eMR/ePR) systems in the private sector and contribute to the development of the eHR sharing system”.

It is stated that the fundamental principles in the building of Hong Kong’s eHR include patient-focused platform & patient-controlled access, government operating the system on behalf of citizens and care providers, protection of patient privacy through legal, technical and procedural safeguards, as well as the use of a ‘hub and spoke’ model – meaning care providers continue to own and operate their own EMR systems, while contributing a defined set of data to the eHR.

“We recognise that achieving this vision will need ongoing consensus building and sufficient engagement with all stakeholders, and involve a phased approach over a number of years,” the Government says in the briefing document.

The first phase of the ten-year programme will focus on building shared records repository, the interfaces to individual providers’ HIS and the access portal for care providers. A patient portal is planned during the second phase, allowing citizen-focused health applications to be developed.

The legislature approved a budget of HK$702 million (US$90 million) for the first stage (from FY2009-10 to FY2013-14) to have the eHR sharing platform between public and private hospitals ready, to have HIS for other care providers to connect to the sharing platform, and to formulate legal framework for the eHR sharing system to protect data privacy and security “prior to commissioning of the system”.

The eHR core sharing infrastructure (eHR Core) is architected around a centralised eHR Sharable Data Store, serving as the hub for storage and distribution. It includes five infrastructural components through three layers of data access. The Service Oriented Architecture-based infrastructure is not only expected to be secure and sustainable, it will also have to a targeted average service availability level of 99.9 per cent on a 24/7 basis.

A central data store will store all the shareable data, which will have been “transformed, restructure, standardised and re-formatted” before being stored in the repository. The Government defines shareable as “a defined set of health data that are significant for patient care and necessary for sharing among healthcare providers”.

A Hong Kong Clinical Terminology Table will be built to support the development of eHR by integrating the international terminologies, available in the forms of various terminology standards. Other standards, including Data Interoperability Standards, have been published by the government.

The Hospital Authority (HA), which runs over 40 hospitals and 120 clinics (thus more than 80 per cent of the care market), currently stores medical records of over eight million patients. HA’s Clinical Management System (CMS), which the Authority has been using for more than 15 years, the government encourages the private sector to leverage HA’s experience and expertise, and even a abridged version of the CMS called CMS On-Ramp. Serving as the technical agency for the government on this project, the HA also takes care of all the hardware and supplies as well as part of the services, with the remaining part to be sourced from the private sector, providing business opportunities for “particularly small and medium enterprises wherever feasible”.

“The eHR Core will leverage on HA’s existing information model, standardised clinical terminology, information architecture management framework and ePR system with in-house adaptation to meet the needs of eHR projects. Other eHR Core modules will be developed to integrate seamlessly with the existing modules,” the Government says in the briefing document.

Andre Greyling, CIO of the HA tells FutureGov that the eHR is a major test for HA’s resources, because traditionally the HA has been budgeting its resources in a very tight manner: each year’s budget is built from scratch and projects will have to be justified annually for continuous budget support.

“We have a panel which negotiates with the government to protect HA’s interests,” Greyling says.

The Government also intends to create opportunities for the private sector to develop eHR-compatible systems for private hospitals and clinics, by promulgating open standards, providing technical assistance, certifying privately-developed software and licensing modules for private sector to re-use in their implementations.

In addition providing capital funding for core components of eHR and the infrastructure’s recurrent operation/maintenance, the government also considers providing both tangible and intangible in-kind technical support and financing to private healthcare and IT sectors. Nevertheless, the day-to-day operation of private healthcare providers will not be subsidised by the government, and development costs will be shouldered by IT vendors.

Requiring all proposals to be submitted by 31st Jan 2011, the Government says an Evaluation Team including representatives from the government eHR office and the eHR Project Management Office of HA will evaluate all proposals based on a set of published assessment criteria. Priority will be accorded for partnership projects, with consideration of implementation timeline of each individual project and how it aligns with the overall schedule of eHR development. Resources will then be allocated for the partnership projects.

“The Government sees engagement of the private sector an integral part of eHR development,” the Government briefing paper says, stressing that all partnership proposals put up will be considered as long as they can meet the EEI objectives of “facilitating the development and deployment of eMR/ePR systems and contributing to eHR sharing in the private sector”.

Reference: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2009/oct/26/hong-kong-invites-private-care-providers-join-ehr/

---