South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare officially launches My HealthWay, a national platform that serves as a “health information highway” for individuals’ personal health records.
Based on a press statement, the platform collects a person’s health information from various sources, creating a single view of that data. It also allows individuals to store and enable the transfer of their health data with their consent.
WHY IT MATTERS
Previously, patients could only access some of their health information, including vaccination history, health check, treatment records and medical history, all of which are held by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, National Health Insurance Corporation and Health Insurance Review and Assessment. Employ.
With the launch of the Health Information Highway, they can now access 113 items of health information, including surgical reports and pathology test results held in various healthcare facilities. They can view these at a glance without having to search through each item individually.
THE GREATER CONTEXT
The expanded access was made possible by connecting data from approximately 860 medical institutions, including tertiary hospitals. An additional 12.2 billion won ($9 million) was set aside for this data linkage in the 2024 Health Information Highway budget. More hospitals and clinics will be connected to MyHealthWay by the end of September, the MOHW said.
The launch of My HealthWay, a project under the Digital Platform Government initiative, resulted from a successful pilot involving 245 healthcare institutions from August 2022 to February 2023. Nearly a thousand participants were also asked to test the system.
Based on a follow-up survey, most respondents believed that the platform is useful when moving between healthcare facilities; in managing their own health; and in managing the health of their loved ones. Nearly nine in ten have also expressed their intention to use the platform in the future.
Meanwhile, the National Information Resources Service of the Ministry of the Interior and Security is working on a system to improve the security of PHRs to prevent cases of hacking and leaks.
ON THE RECORD
In a statement, Jeong Eun-young, director of MOHW’s Health Industry Policy Division, said the launch of MyHealthWay will strengthen South Korea’s right to health information. “We hope it will become a platform that actually helps people practice an active, healthy lifestyle,” he added.