eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A new consumer digital identity service, My Health Account, is being piloted as part of the release of My COVID Record.

My Health Account is being developed to support the release of the My COVID Record website, which will provide secure access to Covid-19 vaccine and testing records.

Darren Douglass, GM digital strategy and investment at the Ministry of Health, says it will be further developed to support Ministry Covid and other national digital services and across the sector through the Hira (National Health Information Platform) programme.

“The design is what we will leverage for Hira and other services going forward,” he explains.

The digital identity solution is based on the Department of Internal Affairs’ identity trust framework and uses existing identity records and proof of identity, such as passport and license, to verify people.

My Health Account is linked to a person’s National Health Index number, which allows people to securely log on under a privacy level of 2N, and view their vaccination and testing records.

The next step will involve validation to ensure the correct person has opened the account, which may be done by GPs, or possibly via text to an NHI-verified phone number.

“Once you’ve created the digital identity at level 2N strength you can then transition to level 3 relatively easily because once it’s bound to the NHI you have the NHI details that can only be entered by the GP or some other interaction with the health system,” Douglass explains.

Once at level 3N, people will be able to update their own contact details and access more of their health record.

“Hira will build on and leverage that capability to authorise others to access your own information,” he says.

The long-term aim is to make this new service available via other commercially available channels such as patient portals, or directly in a pharmacy or GP clinic.

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