Patients get online access to view and update their health information

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Consumers can view and update their National Health Index (NHI) details via My Health Record and a new standardised summary of people’s core health information will be available online in June.

Consumers can now log in and update details such as preferred name, ethnicity, gender, physical and postal address.

The go-live of the National Events Management Service (NEMS) next month means that updated details like this will automatically be notified to health providers.

Health NZ director sector digital channels Michael Dreyer says this is the start of a “shift towards empowering people with access to and control over their own health information, and a significant enabler for improving the data quality of this important demographic information.”

In May consumers will be able to view their dispensed medications and drug allergies in My Health Record and in June the initial release of the NZ Patient Summary (NZPS) will become available.

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The NZPS is adapted from the International Patient Summary, an internationally recognised data standard that includes an person's core personal health information.

Kathryn Jarden-Brown, product director Health NZ, said at the recent Ring of FHIR event in Auckland that My Health Record is currently available via web and will soon be on a mobile app.

“We have just finished the procurement activity for that and we are about to engage our supplier,” she said.

Picture: Kathryn Jarden-Brown, product director, Health NZ, speaking the recent Ring of FHIR event

Jarden-Brown said the Hira team is also working on a solution for health staff to access information held on My Health Record.

Digital suppliers and developers will be able to access My Health Record data via APIs in the Hira Digital Services Hub/ Marketplace.

Alastair Kenworthy, group manager data and digital standards at Health NZ, also spoke at the event and said the go-live of the NZPS “can firmly establish New Zealand on the global digital health stage”.

The New Zealand adaptation of the international standard includes four extensions; alerts, recent encounters, patient story, and eligibility and entitlements.

Kenworthy says the addition of the ‘patient story’ is the way for a consumer to tell their own health story and describe their health goals in digital form.

“The international patient summary has been adapted to our unique cultural and system settings and designed for use across borders. We want to showcase the NZ patient summary as an exemplar to the rest of the world,” he says.

My Health Record replaced My Covid Record in February 2024. Consumers can now also view their High Use Health Card and Community Services Card details and some NHI details for their children under 12 who are linked to their account.

A recent Health NZ Te Whatu Ora data and digital update says the National Events Management Service (NEMS) will mean people will only need to update their records once and these will be seamlessly integrated across various healthcare systems.

NEMS will be accessible to healthcare providers across the motu in April.

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