NT, GBDi join hands to launch national healthcare database

NT, GBDi join hands to launch national healthcare database

National Telecom (NT) is joining forces with the Government Big Data Institute (GBDi) to launch a "Health Link" centralised platform to gather patients' records from around 100 hospitals to facilitate healthcare services.

The platform, which leverages NT's cloud system, is expected to follow international standards for data storage and exchange.

The move should make it easier for patients who transfer hospitals to share their medical records.

People aged over 18 can apply for the system through the Pao Tang app developed by Krungthai Bank. The number of participating hospitals is expected to increase to 200 by the end of next year.

Wongkot Vijacksungsithi, senior executive vice-president for NT's digital business, said the platform allows participating hospitals to access patient history data from other hospitals that could help patients save on unnecessary travel and medical expenses.

The project is supported by the Digital Economy and Society Development Fund.

The Health Link was developed under the international security standard ISO 27001 and CSA STAR to ensure safe personal data storage with the international standard of the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which is the standard for the exchange of health information used globally and developed by Health Level Seven International.

The system can be used when interested people sign up and agree to let hospitals submit their medical records to the platform, he said.

Data is encrypted in storage to prevent data leaks, and the people who can access the information must be only doctors with licences from the Medical Council who work in participating hospitals.

Tiranee Achalakul, vice-president of GBDi, said hospitals normally have their own patient database systems, so exchanging information is complicated and time-consuming, which subsequently hinders cross-hospital treatment of patients.

Health Link will tackle the problems of patient information sharing between hospitals, especially in emergency cases or a need to transfer patients across provinces, which are plagued with delays and inconveniences, she said.

The system is subject to data security and encryption to protect user privacy, she said.

Cybersecurity checks will also be performed in line with international standards, according to Ms Tiranee.

There will be an application-managing mechanism to ensure the platform will not crash and NT's cloud providing the service will be closely monitored to support the expansion of the system's processing to meet its immediate needs, she said.

The system's health data will be encrypted throughout the data exchange process to make sure outsiders cannot access it during operations.

Data usage activities will be recorded automatically, and the system takes into account people's privacy in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act.

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