The Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement yesterday that an “Electronic Health Record Platform (eHR)” will be launched today, aiming to share medical information among the city’s healthcare providers, comprising both public and private medical institutions.
According to the statement, through the platform, healthcare providers will be able to share local residents’ electronic health information, such as clinical files, medical consultation records, prescriptions and medical examination reports, so as to improve the quality and efficiency of medical services, enhance the safety and consistency of medical care, optimise the use of medical resources and reduce the duplication of examinations and laboratory tests for residents.
The statement pointed out that the city’s hospitals, public health centres and Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) Workers’ Medical Clinics are participating in the platform. The statement added that the platform will also be open to other private healthcare providers, providing Western medicine services upon request.
The statement said that instead of registering for the platform, residents can directly allow doctors to access their health information on the platform using their ID card or “Macao One Account”, adding that doctors must obtain the parents or legal guardian’s consent if their patients are under the age of 18.
The statement noted that if residents are at a hospital’s accident and emergency (A&E) department, and are unable to provide access for doctors to check their health information via the platform, such as when the patient is in a coma, access can be made with the presence and consent of another doctor as a witness when the lack of information may delay medical treatment in an urgent case or cause serious physical harm to the patient. The statement added that all operational procedures will be recorded on the platform for verification purposes, when necessary.
The statement underlined that in order to better protect residents’ privacy, a test message notification service will be provided by the platform so that once a local mobile phone number is successfully registered on the platform, the system will send a text message whenever someone accesses their health information through the platform.
A dedicated label will be provided by the bureau to the participating health care providers so that residents can easily identify whether a doctor is enrolled on the platform at the time of their visit.
This Portuguese-language poster provided by the Health Bureau (SSM) yesterday shows the description of the “Electronic Health Report Platform (eHR)”.
