Electronic health records

Electronic health records store your health information in a secure digital system. Australia’s national system is called My Health Record. You and your healthcare providers can access your electronic health records to help plan your ongoing care.

About electronic health records

Electronic health records provide a safe and secure digital space to store your health information. They are a digital version of notes that used to be kept in paper form.

Electronic health records allow your healthcare providers to access up-to-date information to support your ongoing care.

Benefits

Electronic health records make health information instantly available to authorised people. They improve care coordination and can reduce the risk of medical errors.

They keep information in one place, which helps health professionals to make informed decisions about your care more quickly.

Electronic health record systems can also give providers access to digital tools they can use to make decisions about your care. For example, they could predict your risk of developing type 2 diabetes using the information in your record.

Electronic health records also make workflow more efficient for healthcare providers. They can reduce the time providers need to spend doing paperwork and administrative tasks.

My Health Record

My Health Record is Australia’s secure national electronic health record system. Your My Health Record is a secure online summary of your health information.

It provides you and your healthcare providers with access to vital health information at the point of care, including in an emergency.

My Health Record is available to everyone who has a Medicare card or an individual healthcare identifier (IHI). Most Australians now have a My Health Record.

Electronic health records in Australia have changed over time. My Health Record replaced the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record and the eHealth record.

My Health Record benefits Australia’s health system by making it more efficient, effective, and sustainable.

Your choice

You can choose whether to have a My Health Record. If you no longer want one, you can cancel a My Health Record at any time.

You can also choose whether you want your healthcare provider to upload any specific information to your record.

More about My Health Record

The Australian Digital Health Agency has more information on My Health Record, including:

  • benefits
  • what is included
  • setting up and using your record
  • access and data security
  • statistics on how people are using My Health Record.

We are developing governance arrangements so that in the future, researchers and public health policy makers could apply to use My Health Record data to support their work in improving health outcomes for Australians.

Date last updated:

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