Electronic data improve patient services

China will intensify efforts to ensure the health privacy of patients while encouraging the integration of healthcare services with internet technologies to provide better services, China's top health authority said.

"Health authorities have strict and specific regulations for hospitals over the maintenance and use of patients' paper records and other information, and we are researching how to ensure the security of their electronic data," Jiao Yahui, deputy chief for medical administration and supervision at the National Health Commission, said at a news conference on Thursday.

The commission is also working with experts in legal affairs, information and hospital management to decide the proprietorship of patients' electronics records, so it would be clear who will be able to use such data and in what way, she said.