Hong Kong’s healthcare system ranks among the world’s best, with its residents enjoying one of the longest life expectancies globally. As it moves toward becoming a smart city, its healthcare sector is undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation: from outpatient care to hospital wards, immeasurable amounts of medical data is being redefined by technology.

When I was young, doctor consultations relied entirely on verbal questioning of medical history and handwritten notes. Pharmacists often struggled to decipher doctors’ messy, illegible handwriting. Since the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) launched its electronic medical record (EMR) system in the 1990s, all outpatient and inpatient records have been digitally stored and accessed. This has been particularly valuable for patients with chronic conditions, as full medical histories, even from ten or twenty years ago, can now be retrieved instantly. Paper records were once a common source of medical disputes due to illegible writing or incomplete storage, but electronic documentation have now served as a safeguard for both doctors and patients. Although some clinics still maintain handwritten records stored in filing cabinets, the digitalisation wave is proving widely transformational.

As a medical intern, I have witnessed the challenges of handling medical images during ward rounds—carrying stacks of developed X-ray films from bed to bed, hanging each one on a lightbox for review by senior doctors. Not only was this process labour-intensive, it was also prone to error, with the risk of mixing up patients’ films or misreading left and right. The advent of digital imaging has completely transformed this workflow. CT scans and MRIs are now uploaded directly to the cloud, allowing doctors to compare results, such as changes in tumour size, anytime. Most importantly, the government’s strong push for the “eHealth” platform has enabled interoperability between public and private healthcare providers. Scan results from private hospitals can be accessed instantly by public institutions and vice versa, reducing waiting times for duplicate testing, and easing the burden on public hospitals.

Monitoring vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate once relied on manual note-taking by nurses. Today, smart devices like digital blood pressure monitors are connected to the cloud, uploading readings to the hospital clinical systems in real time. Besides saving nurses valuable time, the systems are also capable of generating visual trend charts automatically, allowing doctors to track patient conditions with precision.

As electronic records, imaging data, and physiological indicators integrate into vast databases, artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrates its powerful value. The HA has already partially implemented AI systems to analyse brain scans and chest X-rays, significantly improving diagnostic speed and accuracy while alleviating manpower shortages to some degree. Yet, the human touch remains at the heart of smart healthcare. I often use this concluding statement at various international and local smart healthcare conferences: “AI may not replace doctors, but doctors who don’t know how to use AI are likely to be replaced by those who do.”

Medical education today goes far beyond traditional diagnosis and prescription. Understanding how technology enhances efficiency and improves patient experience will become an essential skill for the new generation of healthcare professionals. When you see a doctor using a tablet to access data or leverage AI in joint diagnosis – those are the new possibilities that smart healthcare is bringing to the act of protecting lives.