What is My Health Record? For healthcare providers

The future of digital health is not just approaching the horizon; it is already here.

The federal government’s Sharing by Default to My Health Record initiative marks a major turning point in delivering secure, real-time interoperability, ensuring that health information is consumer-controlled, discoverable, accessible and shareable between healthcare providers involved in their care. Legislative changes will ensure key health information, starting with the upload of pathology reports and diagnostic imaging results by default to My Health Record, will empower consumers to take charge of their key health information and allow healthcare providers to access real-time data. This is an opportunity that is as critical as it is exciting.

In the August/September 2025 Hospital + Healthcare cover story, Karen Booth — Chief Clinical Adviser (Nursing) for the Australian Digital Health Agency and immediate past president of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) — sets out why, in the context of the Sharing by Default to My Health Record initiative, it’s time for secure and seamless health data exchange — and an emergency physician provides a supportive case study. To read the story, click here.