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Malaysia is starting to implement national health system reforms this year, including the digitalisation of the foundational health information systems.
According to a news report by state news agency Bernama, the country's Ministry of Health aims to expand the implementation of health information systems to more health facilities this year 2026.
These include the expansion of the Total Hospital Information System (THIS) to 16 hospitals, the cloud-based Clinic Management System to approximately 2,489 primary care settings, and the Dental Information System to 157 dental clinics.
"The time has come for thorough structural changes to ensure that our health system is truly future-ready, future-focused and future-proof," Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad was quoted as saying in a New Year's speech.
Dr Ahmad also announced that they will introduce a centralised dashboard to monitor facilities in real-time and build a National Health Interoperability Platform, which will enable people to access their health records easily online.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Around 14% of public hospitals in Malaysia have been digitalised as of 2025, according to the MOH Digital Health Division. None of them so far has been connected to one another. Among them, at least 10 are known to have implemented the total HIS. This system, which was first implemented in the 960-bed Selayang Hospital in Selangor, integrates clinical, administrative and financial systems into one paperless system.
Malaysia's MOH is building a person-centric, sustainable digital health ecosystem, aiming to digitalise all hospitals by end-2028, Dr Appannan shared at HIMSS25 APAC.
Malaysia is also working on the One Record, One Citizen national EMR project, which breaks the health system into four zones running their own EMR systems.
Meanwhile, the MOH is also pursuing efforts to restructure health and takaful insurance (an Islamic insurance), in partnership with Bank Negara Malaysia, the Finance Ministry, and insurance and takaful providers. It is also targeting additional permanent appointments of 4,500 medical officers and 935 nurses, while launching an integrated dashboard to get an overview of workforce distribution across MOH facilities.
