Here, we round up some of the international health tech news that has caught our attention over the last few weeks.
Singapore passes Bill to improve health information sharing with national EHR
The Singaporean government has passed a Health Information Bill designed to improve the sharing of health information across the nation’s health and care ecosystem, supporting the shift to delivering more care in the community, and ensuring healthcare providers have access to “a consistent set” of patient information.
Progress has already been made in enabling patient summary records to be shared across the system, with most GPs and private hospitals onboarded to the national EHR, but gaps remaining areas such as specialist clinics or laboratories. Under the new Bill, all licensed healthcare providers will be required to share key health information, covering vaccines, medications, diagnoses, and lab test results.
Those providers contributing to and accessing the national EHR will have to meet cyber security and data security standards to protect health information, the government shares, with the expectation for organisations to notify the Ministry of Health of confirmed cyber incidents or breaches. Safeguards have also been put in place to strengthen governance and access control, including measures such as regular audits to flag inappropriate access.
Due to come into force in early 2027, the Bill will play a “critical role” in promoting better coordinated care, quality of care, and lower costs, the government outlines.
New national EHR for Guyana
A national EHR has been launched in Guyana, to help reduce waiting times, eliminate paper records, and improve coordination of care. Functionality covers online appointment booking, access to medical history, and viewing results.
Patient data security is of the highest priority, according to Minister of Health Frank Anthony, with fines of up to $20 million for individuals and $100 million for institutions that unlawfully share personal medical information. “People’s information must be kept confidential, and we are taking this very seriously,” he added.
The system will now be rolled out across the country, with all public hospitals and health centres to be onboarded. “If we embrace this and work well, we will all share in the benefits,” the Minister noted.
UNDP oversees strengthen cooperation on digital public infrastructure for health between Republic of Zambia and Republic of India
The UNDP is working with the Electronic Government Division-SMART Zambia Institute and the High Commission of India in Zambia, to strengthen cooperation between the two countries on digital public health infrastructure, with a focus on medicines traceability and supply chain management systems.
Responding to “persistent challenges” around national supply chains, the initiative hopes to support better planning and decision making, enabling real-time medicines monitoring, and built on open-source architecture aligned with Zambia’s national interoperability frameworks.
National coordinator of the SMART Zambia institute, Percy Chinyama, said: “This partnership is about building a government owned digital foundation that enables different institutions to work from the same digital platform. Reliable data, interoperable and open systems are essential if digital health solutions are to scale nationally and deliver lasting value.”
Spanish Ministry of Health to improve visibility of waiting list information with Royal Decree
The Spanish Ministry of Health has begun public consultations around a new Royal Decree designed to help improve visibility of information on waiting lists.
There are limitations with the current framework’s ability to effectively demonstrate patient flows and interrogate the causes of delays, the Ministry states. “In particular, the progressive increase in the delay in access to primary care consultations and its direct impact on accessibility, continuity of care and early resolution of health problems, highlight the need for homogeneous and comparable information on the times of access to the first level of health care.”
The new decree covers data on times of access to primary care, waiting times for mental health consultations, and criteria for therapeutic tests. “One of the main problems that are intended to be solved is the lack of capacity to analyze the inflows and outflows of patients and the underlying causes of the delays,” according to the Ministry. “The objective is not only to offer figures, but to provide advanced analytical tools that allow better planning and evaluation of public policies.”
