DingTalk Revolutionizes Healthcare Communication in Hong Kong: A Secure and Compliant Solution for Doctors to Share Medical Records

What is the DingTalk Healthcare Solution and Its Core Features

Healthcare management in Hong Kong is undergoing a technological transformation. The DingTalk Healthcare Solution, an enterprise-grade platform built on Alibaba Cloud, is specifically designed to comply with local regulations, supporting secure and compliant electronic medical record (EMR) sharing and cross-institutional collaboration, fully aligned with HKPC PDPO guidelines.

• End-to-end encrypted communication: All messages and file transfers use military-grade encryption technology, offering stronger enterprise control compared to private messaging apps like WhatsApp, effectively preventing data leaks.
• Integrated EMR API: Seamlessly connects with existing hospital HIS systems (e.g., PACS and eHRSS), automatically synchronizing patient diagnosis data and significantly reducing errors from manual re-entry.
• Multi-clinic collaboration dashboard: Offers task tracking functionality to optimize referral processes and consultation scheduling, improving coordination efficiency between primary and specialist care.
• AI-powered Cantonese voice transcription for ward rounds: Leverages Tongyi Qianwen's Cantonese speech model to instantly convert bedside notes into structured text. According to pilot data from Tuen Mun Hospital, this saves over 40% of documentation time.
• Comprehensive audit logs: All user actions are traceable, meeting the requirements of Section 34 of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, and has been verified under Alibaba’s "Healthcare Cloud Compliance White Paper 2024".

Compared to traditional communication methods relying on WhatsApp, DingTalk demonstrates clear advantages in access control and auditability. It supports dynamic watermarking, message self-destruction, and role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring sensitive medical records are accessible only to authorized personnel—marking a fundamental shift from “convenience-first” to “compliance-driven” practices.

What Challenges Do Current Healthcare Information Systems in Hong Kong Face?

Hong Kong's public and private healthcare sectors have long struggled with information silos, severely hindering the efficiency of physician medical record sharing. According to a 2023 Hospital Authority report, only 37% of specialist clinics achieve cross-hospital electronic referrals. A University of Hong Kong study found that 68% of doctors had delayed prescriptions due to inability to access external medical reports, highlighting fundamental interoperability flaws.

• System heterogeneity: Public hospitals use the HA HIS system operated by the Hospital Authority, while private institutions mostly rely on different EHR platforms such as MediLink or Genesis, resulting in incompatible formats that impede data exchange.
• Lack of unified identity verification: Patients use different identifiers across institutions, making it difficult to consolidate complete medical histories and increasing the risk of redundant diagnoses.
• High doctor mobility: Many part-time physicians practice across multiple institutions, but current platforms lack support for cross-institutional permission management, leading to fragmented data access.

Patients also bear direct costs. Interviews show that more than half of chronic disease patients must repeat blood tests or imaging scans, incurring an average additional cost of HK$1,200 and 5.3 days of waiting time. This structural bottleneck represents a key opportunity for DingTalk—its cloud-native architecture and open API design offer potential to integrate disparate systems and establish cross-domain trust mechanisms.

How Does DingTalk Address Real-World Needs for Physician Medical Record Sharing?

DingTalk enables secure and real-time medical record collaboration through end-to-end encrypted channels and tiered permission controls, addressing pain points such as delays in cross-institutional data exchange and cumbersome authorization procedures, all within a technical framework compliant with HIPAA and Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

In a simulated scenario, Specialist Doctor A at a Kowloon West hospital requires long-term medical history from General Practitioner B for a suspected brain tumor patient. Doctor A creates a "temporary consultation group," uploads de-identified MRI images and clinical summaries, and the system automatically applies GDPR-compliant algorithms. The patient receives a one-time dynamic authorization code via SMS to approve Doctor B’s access—the entire process takes just two minutes.

All actions by Doctor B—including login times, IP addresses, and document access frequency—are immediately logged and synchronized via API to the HKMAH Electronic Health Record Interoperability System, ensuring full audit integrity. After consultation, the group enters a 72-hour cooling period, after which data is either encrypted and archived or deleted according to predefined policies.

This model is currently being piloted by three non-profit organizations:

• Tung Wah Group of Hospitals: Consultation response time reduced from 48 hours to 90 minutes (2024 internal quality report)
• Po Leung Kuk Hospital: Cross-departmental referral error rate dropped by 67% (Q1 2025 clinical evaluation)
• Ling Shih Nursing College Affiliated Clinic: Patient consent rate increased to 91%, thanks to transparent data flow design

This approach successfully rebuilds the trust chain between primary and specialist care. The next step focuses on integrating with the upcoming Smart Healthcare Identity Authentication Gateway from the Department of Health to further lower compliance barriers.

Key Legal Requirements When Using DingTalk for Medical Record Sharing

Sharing medical records via DingTalk must strictly adhere to Section 4AA of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and the Medical Council Code of Ethics, ensuring data is transmitted and accessed only in secure environments and with explicit consent. Through localized deployment and compliance-by-design architecture, the platform serves as a legally sound tool for data sharing.

• Servers located within Alibaba Cloud’s financial zone nodes in Hong Kong, complying with the Privacy Commissioner’s requirement that data remain within the territory, avoiding cross-border risks.
• Supports a dual consent mechanism: Patients authorize data sharing via encrypted links, while doctors must confirm the intended purpose a second time, enforcing the principle of "specific-purpose use."
• The system generates audit reports compliant with GDPR and HKICF frameworks, recording every access timestamp, identity, and action taken for third-party review.

According to the 2024 "Guidelines on Remote Healthcare Communication Tools" issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, DingTalk met 10 out of 12 compliance criteria, receiving ratings of "above benchmark" particularly in "real-time withdrawal of consent" and "end-to-end audit trail." This performance has led to its gradual adoption within public hospital specialist referral networks, demonstrating how privacy-by-design principles can balance efficiency with protection.

Will DingTalk Dominate Future Healthcare Collaboration Platforms?

DingTalk has the potential to become an ecosystem hub, but faces competition from global players such as Apple Health Records and Google Cloud Healthcare API. Its strength lies in deep integration with Chinese healthcare compliance frameworks and localized interfaces tailored for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

• Localized support: Supports Traditional Chinese voice transcription and Hong Kong-specific diagnostic code mapping, better aligning with frontline physicians’ workflows than Apple Health.
• Government certification: As of 2024, received Level 2 recognition under Hong Kong’s Department of Health "Smart Hospital Certification Program," second only to eHRSS-integrated platforms.
• Interface openness: While Google Cloud Healthcare API allows free integration with FHIR 4.0 standards, DingTalk requires approval for accessing core modules.
• AI clinical decision support: Alibaba Cloud’s ET Medical Brain is embedded in DingTalk’s Cantonese version, providing diabetes management recommendations with 89% accuracy (2024 pilot at Princess Margaret Hospital).
• Compliance flexibility: Unlike Microsoft Teams Healthcare with built-in HIPAA monitoring, DingTalk uses private cloud deployment, better accommodating local requirements that prohibit data from leaving the region.

According to Gartner’s 2024 Asia-Pacific Digital Health Forecast, by 2027, 40% of public hospitals are expected to adopt hybrid collaboration architectures, with tools developed in China accounting for 55%. Future innovation may come from combinations such as “decentralized identity (DID) + BeiDou positioning for digital signatures,” potentially resolving legal disputes over the validity of electronic signatures in cross-border consultations, forming the foundation for next-generation compliant collaboration.

We dedicated to serving clients with professional DingTalk solutions. If you'd like to learn more about DingTalk platform applications, feel free to contact our online customer service or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. With a skilled development and operations team and extensive market experience, we’re ready to deliver expert DingTalk services and solutions tailored to your needs!