More than 920,000 people have registered to use the “My Health Bank” service and there are plans to expand the service to allow direct blood relatives to check the medical history of family members in March, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said.
Launched in September 2014, the My Health Bank service allows people with National Health Insurance (NHI) to register for an account on the online system and view their own medical history.
The information that users can look up in their account includes their inpatient, outpatient and dental records in the past three years, vaccinations, allergic reactions and prescribed drug use records and examination reports, organ donation or hospice care preferences, and reminders about their next recommended health checkup.
Photo: CNA
My Health Bank users can also insert their height, weight, blood pressure and other measurements to keep track of their own health.
NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) on Tuesday said that more than 920,000 people have registered to use the service so far and demographics showed that 46 percent of users are aged between 31 and 50, 53 percent are married, 55 percent are female and 74 percent live in urban areas.
Asked to share his experiences of using the service, entertainer Alvin Hou (侯昌明) said he is often busy working and would forget about the illnesses he has had, so logging into his My Health Bank account allows him to clearly understand his medical history.
He said his father has dementia, chronic hypertension and diabetes, and needs repeated prescriptions, but he had sometimes forgotten to collect the prescriptions due to his busy work schedule, so the service helps to remind him.
The NHIA plans to expand the service for users to also check their parents’ or children’s medical records using their own account in March.
Many middle-aged people have busy work schedules, while having to take care of their elderly parents and children at the same time, so the expanded service is expected to help them manage their family members’ health more easily, Lee said.
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