The My Health Record system allows Australians to have a secure, online summary of their health information that can be viewed by treating healthcare providers including doctors, nurses and pharmacists across Australia.
It provides an active online record that follows your patients as they move through Australia’s health system, capturing important clinical and treatment information at different points in time.
All healthcare providers in Australia have professional and legal obligations to protect their patients’ sensitive health information. Practice owners and managers need to understand their obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 and should be striving to embed good privacy processes and policy in their practice. In addition, healthcare organisations are required, by legislation, to have a written My Health Record security and access policy to register, and remain registered, with My Health Record regardless of the organisation’s size or how often you access the My Health Record system.
At a minimum, an organisation’s My Health Record security and access policy must address the following:
Having a My Health Record security and access policy helps to ensure that the information held within My Health Record is used appropriately, kept secure and protected.
Listen to the Australian Digital Health Agency’s podcast episode to learn more about the key components of a My Health Record security and access policy.
The My Health Record Security and Access policy guidelines and a template can be found here.
To ensure your healthcare organisation can view its patients’ My Health Records, your organisation needs to be registered.
Once your organisation is registered, individual healthcare providers and other relevant employees can be authorised to access the My Health Record system on the organisation’s behalf.
Download the WNSW PHN Toolkit for My Health Record and follow the three essential steps to getting registered and using My Health Record for patient care.
Assisted registration is a way for healthcare organisations to help individuals register for a My Health Record.
If a healthcare organisation chooses to provide this voluntary service to individuals, it does so by submitting an individual’s details to the My Health Record System Operator using compatible software. In doing so the organisation asserts that it has checked the individual’s identity and obtained their consent to being registered and having their health information uploaded to their My Health Record.
General practices that engage with the My Health Record system may be eligible for the . This incentive encourages practices to contribute shared health summaries, helping improve patient care and the adoption of digital health technologies.
The eligibility requirement is for general practices to contribute shared health summaries to the My Health Record system for their patients (Requirement 5). General practices will be required to upload shared health summaries for a minimum of 0.5% of the practice’s standardised whole patient equivalent (SWPE) to be eligible for the PIP Health Incentive payment. All other incentive obligations and requirements remain the same.
Patients with a Medicare card and myID (formally myGov) account can access My Health Record information on their mobile via the my health app.
my health is an Australian Digital Health Agency owned and managed app, and is the latest digital tool developed by the Agency to help consumers and their carers engage with and be proactive in managing their health.
my health is now available to download from iOS and Android app stores by searching for “my health gov”.
my health provides easy access to key health information once it has been uploaded to My Health Record:
Access a range of resources to help you confidently use My Health Record in your practice.
Click here for more information on privacy and security for providers and who can access a patient’s My Health Record.
Contact us for information and support.
