5. Health information protection

Health information is generated whenever patients seek care from health services providers, such as clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and more. The health information from each visit is held by the different health service providers in separate paper or electronic record systems. With patients being managed by various healthcare providers across public and private institutions, the need for secure and seamless information flow to ensure the better continuity and quality of care is paramount.

To address the challenges posed by fragmented health information systems, the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) was launched in November 2011 as a centralized health information repository, enabling coordinated care for both patients and health services providers. Despite the potential benefits of the NEHR, there was uneven participation, particularly among private healthcare providers, to contribute health information to NEHR. To address this disparity, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will be introducing the Health Information Bill (HIB) to mandate all licensed healthcare providers to contribute data to the NEHR. This move ensures that important health information for patient care is accessible to providers across the healthcare landscape, thereby enhancing quality and continuity of care for patients.

In the digital era, the protection of health information is not only a matter of privacy and confidentiality, it is also fundamental to maintaining trust in the healthcare system. As such, the HIB will also include a robust set of cyber and data security requirements for healthcare providers to strengthen health information governance and protection.

Visit Healthinfo for more information on HIB.