My Health Record for Victorian Health Services

My Health Record is a secure, online summary of key health information. The data is controlled by the consumer and managed by the Australian Government. It ensures timely access to health data across treatment settings by authorised healthcare providers. This enables better clinical decision making to support better patient outcomes.

Operators of My Health Record

The Australian Digital Health Agency is the system operator of My Health Record.

My Health Record resources are available for healthcare providers and consumers on the Australian Digital Health Agency's website.

Working together, the system operator and the Victorian Department of Health will:

• continue to raise consumer awareness
• offer professional development for healthcare providers
• assist front-line staff to understand and use My Health Record in their day-to-day work.

My Health Record Content

My Health Record can contain the following information:

• medical history (shared health, event and discharge summaries)
• medicines information (pharmacist shared medicines lists, prescription and dispense records
• allergies and adverse reactions
• immunisations from the Australian Immunisation Register
• Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) items
• Pathology and Diagnostic Imaging Test Reports
• Specialist Letters
• Aged Care Transfer Summaries
• Aged Care Support Plan
• Advance Care Planning Documentation
• eReferrals.

As more healthcare providers take part, the availability of healthcare information will increase the safety, quality and efficiency of Australia’s healthcare system.

Who has a My Health Record?

Adults

A My Health Record has been created for the following cohorts, unless they have made a specific request to cancel it.

• Medicare card holders
• Department of Veterans Affairs card holders
• people serving in the Australian Defence Force.

As of November 2025, there are 6.12 million individuals with an active My Health Record in Victoria and 24.7 million across Australia. View their statistics and insights page for more information.

Children

Newborn babies are issued with a My Health Record on Medicare registration. Parents can request a My Health Record not be created for their child.

Parents and guardians are automatically made an authorised representative of children aged 0 to 13 years on the same Medicare card.

More information on how to access or create a child's record is available on the digital health website.

Once linked the Parent or Guardian can:

• View the child’s My Health Record
• Manage the record (e.g. control privacy settings, upload documents)
• Delete the record if desired

Teenagers

When a child turns 14 years old, control of My Health Record automatically transfers to them. The parents authority to access their teenager’s My Health Record is revoked. There is no formal notification from the system operator when the access has been changed.

The teenager can give a parent or guardian access to their record (See nominated representative details below).

Privacy & Access Options

My Health Record is most effective when healthcare providers can access all health information. This allows care teams to make informed decisions using the consumers current health information. Find out more about privacy and access at the Australian Digital Health Agency website.

Consumer Controlled

There are situations where access to information needs to be restricted. The consumer is in control and can decide who can view and contribute information to their My Health Record.

Consumers have the option to opt out of My Health Record at any time - however cancellation is permanent. It can limit healthcare providers’ ability to access important health information when needed.

Representatives

Nominated Representative

A consumer can nominate a representative to access their My Health Record if:

• When they need assistance to use the My Health Record
• they want health information shared with a family member or a friend

Once the representative has been nominated, they can view the individual’s My Health Record.

Authorised Representative

For people who cannot make decisions for themselves, a trusted individual can be appointed as an authorised representative. In this capacity the Authorised Representative can manage the consumers My Health Record on the consumer’s behalf.

Impact for Victorian health services

My Health Record does not affect how core services are delivered by health services and does not change current workflows or applications used to support clinical decision-making (e.g., electronic medical records, paper drug charts, etc.). However the additional information available via My Health Record will enhance clinical decision-making.

My Health Record enables clinicians to view information from other healthcare providers. For example, information from general practitioners can be viewed by emergency department clinicians.

The more established My Health Record becomes, consumer queries will increase. Health services have existing policies and procedures for managing consumer queries. These should be reviewed and updated to incorporate new information.

Benefits for clinicians

My Health Record will enable better care coordination between healthcare providers for people who are experiencing chronic and/or complex conditions. Summary documents uploaded by all treating healthcare providers give an overview of the timeline and treatment received. Contact details for the author of each clinical document are included, enabling direct contact if needed.

Having immediate access to My Health Record enables healthcare providers to focus on providing the best care possible (even in an emergency situation) using of both presenting and prior history. More time can be spent on treating the consumer instead of searching for information.

My Health Record does not replace existing medical records. However the additional information on My Health Record will support effective health management.

Medical records (including diagnosis and medication) will be clinically validated, reducing the need to rely on consumer memory.

Benefits for healthcare recipients

My Health Record supports consumers to be actively involved in their own healthcare. It is a single, convenient and accessible record that they control. My Health Record supports conversations with healthcare providers for optimal healthcare management.

Recent Developments

National Context

Health Legislation Amendment (Modernising My Health Record—Sharing by Default) Act 2025.

This Act was passed on 14 February 2025 to mandate that key health information - starting with pathology and diagnostic imaging reports - be automatically shared to My Health Record. The range of clinical documents will be added incrementally over time.

Find out more about the improvements to access on the Australian Digital Health Agency.

Victorian Context

Victorian public health services are building capability to interact with My Health Record by implementing national healthcare identifiers.

This sector wide enhancement will ensure that health services will:

• meet legislative obligations to upload pathology and diagnostic imaging reports, by default, to My Health Record.
• be able to upload clinical documents to My Health Record that meet prescribed conformance requirements.
• commence preparation to enable the use of ePrescriptions in hospital pharmacies.
• enable validated and accurate of identification of individuals, healthcare providers and healthcare services.

The Department of Health is supporting Victorian public health services to access the national healthcare identifiers through the Healthcare Information Provider Service (HIPS) which is a statewide managed service.

BreastScreen Victoria commenced the automatic upload of mammographic screening reports in July 2025