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Published on: Computer World Hong Kong // May 26, 2009 Nowadays, many cosmopolitan cities are striving to build urban infrastructure, which includes the use of information technology to optimize digital soft infrastructure.
In my opinion, we can make use of Hong Kong’s advantages to develop an electronic healthcare system. The Task Force on Economic Challenges has recently identified medical services as one of the six economic areas to be explored for further development.
In the past, the Hong Kong government allocated substantial resources to the Hospital Authority for the development of the Clinical Management System (CMS). It will further spend over HK$1.1 billion (US$142 million) to set up a new system—the Electronic Health Record (eHR)—over the next ten years.
IT in healthcare
A seminar on “IT and Healthcare” was organized by my office and held on March 13th. Among the participants: the Hon Leung Ka Lau (a LegCo member representing the Medical FC), project managers from the Hospital Authority, Joe Leung from Alberta, Canada who’s been working in their eHR system for 15 years, and other industry experts. The subject under discussion: “How to make the best use of information technology to enhance the efficiency and quality of healthcare services in HK.”
The new system (eHR) is intended to provide an infrastructure platform through which collaboration between private and public medical providers will be enhanced. With patient consent and proper access authorization, the system will facilitate the retrieval of patients’ medical data, so as to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of medical services. For instance, it will help doctors get patients’ medical history more quickly, reduce duplication of medical tests, improve diagnostic accuracy and strengthen monitoring of diseases.
Nevertheless, the success of a full implementation of eHR in Hong Kong very much depends on the number of private doctors who will participate in the scheme. Private practitioners and their clinics offer more than 70% of outpatient services in Hong Kong, but their medical records are mostly in paper form.
Example: Canada
From the experience of Alberta, a province of Canada, the most difficult task of implementation was to promote the use of the electronic healthcare system to the private practitioners. As a result, the local government had to provide a 70% subsidy for hardware, technical support and training as incentive.
I think that the HKSAR Government should set clear strategies, particularly towards providing incentive and support to attract more private doctors to participate in the scheme for maximum effectiveness. The Hospital Authority should avoid monopolizing the entire process of system design, but should encourage the active participation of private doctors in order to take full account of their requirements and difficulties.
At the same time, the software design of the application interface for front-line doctors should be opened up to commercial organizations. By allowing their participation and more competition, the system will be more flexible, efficient, and friendly to end-users. It will also offer more options to meet the needs of different users, so as to achieve better cost-effectiveness.
The eHR scheme: a winner
I believe that most people have no objection to the setting up of eHR in Hong Kong as soon as possible. The government’s determination to implement such a system is laudable.
However, I will continue to pay attention to the implementation process, and especially hope that the government can include references to overseas medical experiences and data, and also increase the transparency of the operation, thus encouraging the effective participation of both the public and private healthcare providers for implementation of a high quality eHR.
I am confident that once the healthcare soft infrastructure is established, it will enhance not only the local medical services, but also will put Hong Kong’s medical information system in a leading position in the region. This will help realize economic benefits by exporting our medical services to the mainland and overseas.
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