Singapore has introduced the Health Information Bill, a legislative move that places secure data sharing and digital infrastructure at the centre of efforts to deliver more coordinated healthcare nationwide.

The Bill establishes a legal framework governing how key health information is shared across healthcare providers, reinforcing the country’s digital health infrastructure as healthcare delivery increasingly shifts beyond acute hospitals into the community.

The Bill comes at a time when Singapore faces a rapidly ageing population alongside increasing life expectancy, placing growing pressure on the healthcare system through the rising prevalence of chronic diseases.

As care becomes more long-term and complex, with more services provided closer to patients’ homes, it has heightened the need for healthcare providers to access timely, accurate and consistent patient information across different care settings.

National programmes, along with home-based and mobile care initiatives, have broadened the range of healthcare providers. Singaporeans now receive care from hospitals, GPs, specialist clinics, laboratories, dialysis and dental centres and home services. While this improves access, coordinated care increasingly depends on effective digital information sharing.

The National Electronic Health Record system was developed to enable patient information to be shared across the public healthcare system. Most GPs have joined through Healthier SG and private hospitals are onboarding, but some providers, such as specialist clinics, laboratories, radiology services and dental clinics, remain outside the system.

These gaps can fragment patient information, especially between private specialists and primary care doctors, increasing the risk of medication errors, delayed treatment and duplicate tests, despite representing a minority of providers.

The Health Information Bill seeks to close these gaps by making it mandatory for all licensed healthcare providers to share key patient health information through the National Electronic Health Record.

This includes critical data such as allergies, vaccinations, diagnoses, medications, laboratory test results, radiological images and discharge summaries. The Bill also provides for the sharing of non-NEHR hea...