Chaoyang Hospital Medical Consortium Launches 'Cloud Medical Record' Platform to Break Down Information Silos with 'Two Ends, One Database, Multiple Services' Model

On September 26, 2017, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital held a press conference to announce the launch of the “Chaoyang Health Cloud” service. Following the event, a reporter from China Digital Medicine interviewed Cai Ting, Director of the R&D Center at Goodwill E-health Info Co., Ltd. and head of the R&D and technical support team for the “Chaoyang Health Cloud,” discussing Goodwill E-health’s journey in supporting the development of the Chaoyang Health Cloud and its future direction.

According to Cai Ting, “Chaoyang Health Cloud” is a comprehensive personal health record management and service system specially customized for the Chaoyang Hospital Medical Consortium, based on Goodwill E-health’s YiRui Cloud EMR product. This launch also marks the debut of the YiRui Cloud EMR product line.

“Chaoyang Health Cloud APP” Officially Launched: Patients Can View Their Medical Records Within the Chaoyang Hospital Medical Consortium by Simply Installing and Registering on Their Mobile Phones.

According to reports, the “Chaoyang Health Cloud APP” is a medical big data project initiated and led by Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, with technical support provided by Goodwill E-health Info Co.,Ltd. Its primary objective is the collection and sharing of objective medical data. The platform provides patients with objective and continuous personal medical records, supplies healthcare professionals with comprehensive and accurate patient information, and achieves interoperability of patient medical records within the Medical Consortium. Furthermore, it serves as an effective technical tool for electronic prescription delivery, cross-regional medical consultations, remote consultations, and the management of residents’ health records.

As the first app to implement “cloud medical record” technology, the Chaoyang Health Cloud APP provides patients with comprehensive information on clinical visits and health examinations, including textual and imaging data such as medical records, prescriptions, laboratory tests, and diagnostic imaging. This not only eliminates the time and transportation costs associated with repeated hospital visits but also prevents incomplete medical information due to lost test reports.

Cai Ting stated that Goodwill E-health has established “three major data solutions” for hospitals: the Hospital Data Center System, the Digital Medical Record Archiving System, and the “Cloud EMR” medical data sharing platform. These solutions cover application scenarios of healthcare big data from three different dimensions, each playing a distinct role.

The hospital data center supports real-time data flow across in-hospital business systems, integrating both procedural and outcome data from medical care; the digital medical record archiving system is responsible for paperless storage of hospital data, with data signature technology at its core; meanwhile, the “Cloud Medical Record” platform for sharing medical information disseminates medical outcome data to patients, enabling doctor–patient sharing of patient data.

Currently, there is no unified platform in China capable of integrating medical records based on individual patients. As a result, patient data stored in the information systems of various hospitals has become isolated “information silos.” Consequently, when seeking care at different hospitals or campuses, patients are still required to carry paper laboratory reports and imaging films from one facility to another.

Therefore, the original intention behind developing cloud-based electronic medical records (EMRs) was to build a comprehensive personal health record system indexed by individual patients, enabling effective lifecycle management of patient medical data. This approach ensures that medical data is not only stored within hospitals but can also be “extracted” for patients to query and store independently.

Cai Ting stated, “We expect that our ‘Cloud Medical Record’ product will better promote the flow and application of medical data. Goodwill E-health Info Co.,Ltd. aims to support hospitals’ digital transformation by leveraging comprehensive control and application of medical data.”

At the press conference, Liu Yuhong, Director of the Information Center at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, outlined “Five Key Features” regarding the application of the “Chaoyang Health Cloud”:

First, the personal health record is comprehensive and systematic. Chaoyang Health Cloud organizes visit information in chronological order of patient consultations, allowing detailed review of each visit’s department, physician, diagnosis, prescription, and other consultation details, as well as various test and examination reports, including X-rays, ultrasounds, and CT scans.

Second, family health management is convenient and efficient. Chaoyang Health Cloud not only allows users to view their own medical records but also enables them to manage their family members’ medical visit data by creating member profiles.

Third, patients and doctors are just a click away. Chaoyang Health Cloud automatically records your attending physician based on your hospital visits and provides detailed diagnosis and treatment records for each doctor, enabling you to better track and review your consultation and recovery journey from the perspective of your attending physician.

Fourth, Get a Head Start on Viewing Your Test and Examination Results. The Chaoyang Health Cloud can promptly push all types of laboratory and diagnostic test results from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital to you. The electronic reports maintain the same format as the paper versions, truly enabling mobile access to your test and examination results.

Fifth, patient privacy is well protected and secure. From the outset of the development of the Chaoyang Health Cloud application, patient privacy protection and data security were designed as primary technical components. Patients are required to verify their identity using methods such as their social security card or Jingyitong when downloading and registering for the app.

Regarding security, Cai Ting also emphasized that “Chaoyang Health Cloud” safeguards patient privacy and data security at every stage through multiple security strategies, including strong identity authentication, data encryption, access control, system firewalls, port control, dedicated network lines, and controlled data dissemination with access auditing.

Regarding the future development of “Cloud Medical Records,” Cai Ting indicated two primary directions: First, achieving connectivity between the Cloud Medical Records app and smart hardware devices to incorporate vital sign monitoring for patients with chronic diseases, thereby enriching personal health information within the cloud records and providing effective support for chronic disease management and out-of-hospital follow-up. Second, enhancing the support provided by Cloud Medical Records for tiered diagnosis and treatment and remote consultations within medical consortia.

In the future, Goodwill E-health aims to build "Cloud Medical Records" into a data-driven medical service platform, featuring a structure of "two ends, one database, and multiple services":

“Cloud Medical Record” Patient-Side App: Positioned as a health steward on the smartphones of the general public, it provides patients with objective medical information management covering the longitudinal, full-lifecycle health data of individuals and their families.

“Cloud EMR” Physician App provides healthcare professionals with a comprehensive view of patients' historical diagnosis and treatment information;

The “Cloud Medical Record” medical data sharing platform integrates data from various information systems for healthcare institutions, breaks down information silos, and enables orderly storage and reliable dissemination of medical data; on this basis, it provides post-consultation services for doctors and patients built upon trusted doctor-patient relationships.

Currently, application services such as medication reminders, health education, and chronic disease follow-up have been provided to patients, with services like service evaluation and post-diagnosis/post-procedure consultations soon to be launched. The “Cloud Medical Record” technology has laid the foundation for the construction of regional healthcare informatization. As healthcare reform deepens, more medical institutions are expected to participate in the development of the “Health Cloud.” It is anticipated that “Cloud Medical Records” will better harness the “power” of medical data, meeting the urgent needs of the general public, healthcare professionals, and medical institutions for the utilization of medical data in the era of mobile internet and sweeping healthcare reform.