Taiwan Ministry of Health to Integrate Electronic Medical Records in Major Hospitals within Two Years

Details

According to the plan announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Taiwan), current Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems are independently developed at each hospital, leading to significant interoperability challenges. To solve this, the ministry plans to adopt FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), an international standard for healthcare information exchange technology, to unify Taiwan's EMR format. The platform aims not only for data exchange but also incorporates CQL (Clinical Quality Language), a standardized language program based on international rules. This will standardize medical decision-making by integrating health insurance claims, quality assessments, and clinical guidelines. Furthermore, the adoption of SMART, an international application standard, is intended to build an AI healthcare application ecosystem—a market similar to the Google Store. This allows medical institutions to freely download and apply AI technologies, thereby increasing efficiency. The Ministry's Director stated that Taiwan currently possesses four FHIR Implementation Guides (IGs) (the most in Asia). With the rollout across all major hospitals nationwide, they plan to establish a total of 109 IGs.