Taiwan's NHIA Adopts FHIR Standards for NGS Data Collection, Driving Digitalization
The NHIA Adopts FHIR Standards for NGS Data Collection, Marking a New Digital Milestone ...
Summary
The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) of Taiwan adopted the international standard FHIR for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data handling to promote precision medicine. This initiative digitizes genetic testing reports, which were previously managed in PDF or unstructured text, thereby advancing cross-hospital data interoperability and automation.
Details
The NHIA launched the "Strategic Planning and Establishment of an Infrastructure for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data" project, adopting the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) international standard starting in October 2025. This is part of a broader effort toward realizing precision medicine. Previously, genetic testing reports were generated as PDFs or unstructured plain text, hindering digitalization and automation. The adoption of FHIR ensures data interoperability across institutions. Under this project, the NHIA led multiple hospitals (e.g., Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital) and testing institutions to share experiences in standardizing genetic testing data and integrating clinical data upload workflows. Notably, for prior authorization applications for cancer drugs, submitting electronic medical records (EMRs) in FHIR format is encouraged. As of April 2026, 35 out of 81 participating hospitals submitted data in this format. Moving forward, the sharing of patient information—including cross-hospital medical records and medication histories—via cloud-based systems is expected to enable physicians to make more precise diagnoses and prescription decisions. This marks a significant step toward achieving the vision of a "Healthy Taiwan" by integrating patient data from diagnosis through outcome follow-up.
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