Hong Kong Health Bureau: eHealth registrations exceed 6.57 million, will be developed into a comprehensive health tool for citizens.

On October 23, Professor Lo Chung-mau, Secretary for Health of Hong Kong, delivered opening remarks at the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services meeting on the latest progress of "eHealth+". He said that since launching the five-year eHealth+ plan in 2024, the Government has upgraded eHealth into a comprehensive healthcare digital infrastructure integrating record sharing, service delivery and process management. The first five-year plan for Hong Kong proposes to continue implementing eHealth+, build a digital health network covering Hong Kong and connecting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, develop new functions and expand service scope, integrate all government-subsidised healthcare schemes, and turn the eHealth mobile application into a comprehensive health tool for citizens. Two years into eHealth+, significant milestone results have been achieved. eHealth registrations have exceeded 6.57 million, accounting for more than 87% of Hong Kong's population, connecting more than 4,700 major public and private healthcare institutions, with over 65,000 registered healthcare professionals. The volume of electronic health records deposited into eHealth by the private sector this year is expected to grow by more than 130% over last year. The eHealth mobile application has recorded over 4.42 million downloads, with average monthly logins exceeding 1.41 million, up more than 43% year on year. The Government will continue to advance eHealth+ under the patient-centric principle and four strategic directions, namely "unified electronic medical records", "unified governance processes", "unified health tools" and "unified data platform". On "unified electronic medical records", eHealth now covers more than 87% of Hong Kong's population, with registrations in the under-18 group rising 38% over the past year. The Government encourages private healthcare providers to deposit electronic health records through a three-pronged approach of technical support, subsidies and incentives. Since 2024, it has launched a subsidy scheme and worked with clinical management system vendors and medical groups on system enhancements to achieve seamless interconnection between private systems and eHealth. Last year it launched the eHealth+ Connectivity Support Scheme and the eHealth+ Connectivity Certification Scheme to promote adoption by private healthcare providers of systems connected to eHealth and to help citizens identify and choose providers capable of depositing records into eHealth. In addition, the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 took effect last December, implementing a streamlined consent mechanism. Since its implementation, more than 2.07 million citizens have adopted streamlined consent, and the number of citizens receiving health data deposited by private healthcare providers each month has increased by 74%. All private hospitals and major large medical groups in Hong Kong now have the capability to deposit records into eHealth. The Government will in future provide targeted assistance to small solo clinics, individual practitioners and other categories of healthcare providers to connect to eHealth, such as private laboratories and radiodiagnostic centres. The Government will also continue to implement the "opt-out" registration arrangement in the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, require citizens participating in public healthcare schemes and receiving services to register with eHealth, and enhance the child health management function of the eHealth mobile application to encourage more citizens, especially parents, to register their children with eHealth. On "unified governance processes", the Government is progressively building a one-stop "strategic health service operations platform" to integrate some government-subsidised healthcare schemes and primary healthcare services, and will bring more schemes onto the platform and expand its functions. To support citizens' cross-boundary healthcare needs, the Government extended the "cross-boundary health records" function last December to all Hong Kong citizens, and in January this year enhanced the "personal folder" function so that citizens can authorise designated overseas healthcare institutions to deposit radiological examination reports and images into their eHealth accounts. The Government will continue to expand cross-boundary health record sharing in an orderly manner, including facilitating more Greater Bay Area institutions to directly deposit more categories of medical records into eHealth. On "unified health tools", citizens can use the eHealth mobile application to access Chinese and Western medicine records from local public and private healthcare providers and overseas institutions, and to manage all public healthcare schemes and services. This year, new functions such as "e+Imaging", "e+Certificate" and electronic consent forms were added to make it easier for citizens to manage and use their personal electronic medical documents and participate in health schemes. The core functions of the application will continue to be improved to help citizens manage their own and their families' health in one place. On "unified data platform", the Government is progressively enriching eHealth's central database, supported by data analytics tools. The database will help the Government formulate healthcare policy and support medical research, clinical trials and innovation, promoting Hong Kong as an international healthcare innovation hub. This year marks the tenth anniversary of eHealth's launch. Professor Lo said eHealth has become an indispensable "treasure" in Hong Kong's healthcare system. The Government will use eHealth+ to accelerate the direction of healthcare digitalisation and provide citizens with safer, more efficient and higher-quality healthcare services.