In Hong Kong, FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is being adopted to facilitate the exchange of healthcare data. Currently, the adoption level is moderate, with R4 being the active version of FHIR in use. Over the coming years, a significant increase in the adoption rate of FHIR is expected, indicating a positive outlook for FHIR's role in enhancing healthcare data interoperability in Hong Kong.

Rules and Support

  • Health data exchange rules: Currently, there are no specific regulations mandating the use of standards in electronic health data exchange, including FHIR.
  • FHIR requirements: There are no explicit mentions of FHIR in any regulation, nor are there deadlines or fines associated with FHIR compliance.
  • Available funding: Government funds to stimulate the adoption of FHIR are not available.

National Setup

  • Standards organization: HL7 HK is identified as the national organization responsible for health data standards.
  • Implementation guides: A base/core FHIR implementation guide exists and is being used in a limited set of use cases. No link provided.
  • Terminology services: A national FHIR terminology server is reported to be in production.

Active Use Cases

No specific local use cases, international standards use, or key projects were mentioned. Information suggests a growing interest but limited detailed examples of FHIR's application.

Who's Using FHIR

  • Active organizations: Care providers are the primary users of FHIR in Hong Kong.
  • Main reasons for adoption: The main reasons include regulation and grants, improving health outcomes, and improving care workflows. However, specific details on how FHIR is being used are not provided.

Success Stories and Challenges

  • Benefits: No clear benefits or real examples were shared, indicating a need for more success stories to be documented.
  • Main difficulties: High investment cost, unclear benefits, unclear regulations, and lack of FHIR knowledge are cited as significant challenges to FHIR adoption.
  • Future plans: Despite challenges, there is neutral optimism about the benefits of FHIR adoption in coming years, including cost savings, enhanced care coordination, and a more robust digital health ecosystem.

Future Plans

  • Progress so far: The adoption of FHIR has made "quite the progress we expected," indicating a positive trajectory.
  • Next steps: Launch of pilot projects with selected healthcare stakeholders and expanded adoption of FHIR across the healthcare ecosystem are noted as immediate next steps.
  • Expected changes: There is a neutral expectation that significant benefits from FHIR adoption will be realized in the next three years.

The above summary is based on the answers to the State of FHIR Survey 2025, organized by Firely and HL7 International.