sgusers2的部落格

Sharing patient records between public and private institutions will streamline carePatients lugging unwieldy CT scans and X-rays to their doctor’s office could soon be history.存倉In an eHealth Forum held earlier this month, IT and medical professionals shared the progress of their drive to set up a platform for sharing of electronic medical data between the private and public health sectors.“In 2005, medical records in the public sector were accessible to the private sector for the first time, but it was only one-way, with the private sector being able to see records in the public sector,” says Dr Cheung Ngai-tseung, chief medical information officer with the Hospital Authority.“At the end of 2014, it will be mutual sharing. For a patient seeking medical consultation at a private clinic, upon his consent, the clinic can see his medical records [in public hospitals]. He just needs to present his ID card.”Cheung says progress has been attained in the establishment of the mutual platform since the 1990s when the authority developed an electronic system for hospitals.He says the government is in the process of enacting legislation for the mutual sharing of electronic records.With the public sector providing the bulk of medical services in Hong Kong – accounting for 77 per cent of all in-patient services – Choy Khai-meng, the authority’s chief manager in service transformation and a consultant in public-private partnership with the Food and Health Bureau, says the mutual s haring of data can help lessen the burden on the public medical sector.One area in which this has had a positive impact in the private-public collaboration is in the treatment of cataracts.Choy explains: “The waiting list for cataracts suffe自存倉ers at public hospitals is around five years. We give patients subsidies and they can choose to get their surgeries done outside. Patients’ records are sent out electronically. Most of the more than 100 eye surgeons in Hong Kong have joined the programme.”In 2012, the authority received HK$65 million from the government to launch the Pilot Project on Enhancing Radiological Investigation Services through Collaboration with the Private Sector.Under the programme, cancer patients can ask for diagnoses on the stage of their disease. If they’ve joined the electronic medical data sharing system, the results of their magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans are returned to the public hospitals through the electronic platform for subsequent treatment.Electronic records that spell out family illness history, use of medicine, and inoculation history, provide doctors with a clearer picture of their patents’ medical condition.Electronic records can also help the government better handle medical contingencies, Cheung says. For example, in 2009, a drug for treating gout was found to have a problem. Using the database, the affected patients could be found instantly.Stephen Lieber, chief executive of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, a US-based non-profit group and organiser of the eHealth forum, says the initiative can improve medical practices.“Many things can come out of the aggregation and analysis of data. Doctors will be able to recognise how community diseases spread from one place to another and identify hot spots of diseases.”He adds that the Hong Kong government should make sure their self-developed system can keep up with the cutting-edge technologies around the world.迷你倉新蒲崗