The Digital Health Record (DHR) stores your health information safely in one place. Clinicians can quickly access information about your health to give you the best care.
The DHR keeps Information about every visit and treatment you receive at an ACT public health service. This includes public hospitals, community health centres, and walk-in centres.
The DHR stores your:
ACT public health providers record and retain information and interactions of patients. This is a legal requirement.
If you choose to use the ACT public health system you cannot opt out from having your information collected and stored on an electronic medical record.
MyDHR is the patient portal for the Digital Health Record.
You can access MyDHR by either:
Only public health information since November 2022 is available in MyDHR. Private specialist and GP information will not be available. If your medical record is not available through MyDHR contact Canberra Health Services.
You need to use MyDHR from within Australia. You cannot access your MyDHR account from overseas.
Using MyDHR is a great way to become more involved in your health care. It makes it easier to see and manage your public health information.
Anyone over the age of 14 years old who has been a patient of ACT Health.
If you want to deactivate your account, this can be done within MyDHR under Account Settings, or by calling Digital Solutions Support on 5124 5000.
Only you or a nominated proxy can access your MyDHR account.
Proxy access is when a patient gives another person access to their MyDHR account. It allows parents, legal guardians and caregivers to assist others with their health care needs.
To request proxy access:
Your request may take up to 7 days to be processed.
To give another user proxy access:
If you are a proxy, you can link the other person’s information to your own MyDHR account.
You will need additional documentation if someone can’t consent to proxy access.
You can get most of your test results in real time on MyDHR.
You should always talk to your doctor about test results. Your doctor will explain what the results mean.
Some test results are not immediately released on MyDHR. These include:
Your doctor will talk to you about these test results.
Your doctor can release ACT Pathology results that are on hold.
Results from private sources are not shared with MyDHR.
Signing up to MyDHR is optional.
If you don’t want to use MyDHR you can still access your medical records.
Some GPs in Canberra are participating in a trial project called DHR Link.
You can give consent to share your health records to DHR Link. This lets your GP access medical information stored in your DHR.
Consent can also be given by an authorised person, such as a parent or guardian.
There are 3 ways to give consent to share your health records.
When you give consent any practice that uses DHR Link can access your DHR medical record. This includes people working in that practice, such as nurses and allied health staff.
You can withdraw consent at any time. You can do this by either:
When a person turns 14 they can get their own MyDHR account.
Prior to this, a parent will have full access to their child’s account.
A parent or legal guardian may still have limited access to this account until the child turns 15. From the age of 15, a patient can choose to share their MyDHR account through proxy access.
My Health Record is a national system that summarises the care you're getting across the country.
The Digital Health Record stores details of any treatment you receive in the ACT public health system.
Summary information from the Digital Health Record will also update in My Health Record. It will be available for people who need to see it outside the ACT public system.
Find out more about My Health Record.
ACT Health is committed to protecting patient privacy and confidentiality. MyDHR is a secure system. Patient information is safe and protected.
Access is permitted only to authorised users who have been verified through an activation process. We will never send an email asking for your password or login details.
The Digital Health Record follows strict federal and territory confidentiality laws. It has many security measures in place to protect the privacy of patient information.
Access to MyDHR is controlled with a password the patient sets, and a second factor that only that patient has access to. Complex passwords are enforced to protect patient privacy. Two-factor authentication is enabled by default.
MyDHR is an online digital service (website and mobile application) run by ACT Health on behalf of the Australian Capital Territory for the ACT Public Health System.
As part of signing up to MyDHR you should understand the health information included in MyDHR may be information you consider very personal. This may include information about:
Personal Health Information and Personal Information stored on MyDHR is a record of your medical treatment and will be collected, stored, used and disclosed in accordance with the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997. Information will be accessible to you and/or your nominated proxy via MyDHR.
The types of information that may be shared includes:
The ACT Health Digital Health Record (DHR) is an initiative of the ACT Government which records all interactions between a person and ACT public health services. DHR Link is a web portal that shares certain information from DHR with your treating team members who are external to ACT Health, Canberra Health Services and North Canberra Hospital. This may include treating team members such as your general practitioner.
Personal Health Information and Personal Information can be shared with your treating team in accordance with the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997. The types of information that may be shared include:
Other than any other uses authorised by or under law, personal information and personal health information will not be shared by members/organisations that are not part of your treating team.
We use technical controls and safeguards to protect the privacy, security, integrity, and availability of your personal information.
Each healthcare organisation you connect with through MyDHR also uses safeguards to protect your information. Contact them if you have any questions about their safeguards. You can take other steps to protect your information:
We will not sell or license your information. Listed below are the limited ways we interact with your information in connection with MyDHR.
MyDHR connects to healthcare organisations using Epic records management software. Use of MyDHR is subject to ACT Health’s privacy policy.
Google has determined MyDHR apps are subject to their COVID-19 apps requirements. As a result, we are required to provide the following information so we can make MyDHR apps available to you in the Play Store.
ACT Health has engaged with Epic to implement Digital Health Record.
Epic is a world-leading US-based software company with four decades of experience in digitising medical records. Their software has been successfully implemented in thousands of hospitals worldwide.
In Australia, the Epic system has also been implemented at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Women's Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
This statement applies to the following Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government websites and online facilities:
When you visit our websites, our system makes a record of your visit. We use this information to understand how people use our websites so we can improve them.
The information we collect includes:
When you send an email to us or use an online form to raise a technical issue with MyDHR we may record your email address.
We may record extra personal information when you complete an online form. You may need to complete an online form to use some website features or to subscribe to some newsletters. This information may include your:
We will only use information collected by online form for the original use for which we requested it.
Personal information is data that allows a person's identity to be known.
Our website doesn't automatically collect any personal information. Personal information is only collected when you choose to provide it.
We’ll only ask for personal information if you’re:
We'll only use the personal information you give us for the requested purpose. If we ask for your personal information, we’ll tell you why we need it and how we'll use it.
For example, we may use your contact details to:
With respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, ACT Health is bound by the Information Privacy Act 2014.
The Canberra Health Services has an Information Privacy Policy that states how Canberra Health Services keeps information (that is not health information) private. If you want to know more about health information please go to the accessing your medical records page.
MyDHR may interact with your sensitive data to provide certain features, such as video visits or mobile appointment check-in. The first time you try to use any of these features, we will ask for your consent within the app and will only allow you to use a feature if you give consent. You do not have to provide consent if you do not want to allow MyDHR to interact with your data as requested. MyDHR is developed by Epic Systems Corporation; please refer to Epic’s Mobile Application Privacy Policy for Patients for more detailed information about the limited ways they may interact with your information to make your use of MyDHR.
We've included security measures into all parts of our processes.
Some of the security measures we use include:
These security measures ensure the privacy of all information while it's transmitted. Protecting your information against loss, misuse or alteration.
How to access and correct your personal information
We take action to correct your information when needed to make sure it’s:
You have the right to ask for access to your personal information that we hold about you. If you contact us about your personal information we’ll ask to verify your identity before we:
You can review any personal information collected about you at any time by making a formal request in writing to ACT Health, GPO Box 825, Canberra ACT 2601.
ACT Health will take reasonable steps to correct the information to ensure that, having regard to the purpose for which it is held, the information is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. The obligation to correct information is subject to any applicable limitation in a law that provides a right to require the collection or amendment of documents.
If you believe that your personal information is being used for a purpose other than what was intended when submitted, you may contact ACT Health on 13 22 81. In all cases ACT Health will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to granting access to your personal information or making corrections to the information collected.
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (Google). Google Analytics uses cookies and JavaScript code that allows analysis of website usage.
Google uses this data for compiling reports on website activity. And they may use it to provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google will not collect personal information about you.
By using our websites, you consent to the processing of your data by Google as stated here.
Cookies are small pieces of information that your browser stores on your device. The cookies collect data about your use of our website. This data is then used in reports to understand how people use our website so we can make improvements.
These reports only contain combined data and don't include personal information.
These reports may contain information on:
Call our Digital Solutions Support team on 02 5124 5000 to request assistance or more information about the MyDHR service.