The Digital Health Agency aims to connect healthcare providers through secure sharing of patient records.
The Digital Health Agency says connected medical records will help authorised providers access patient histories, cut paperwork and improve coordination across facilities.
The Digital Health Agency (DHA) is rolling out digital systems to connect hospitals, patients, health insurers and medicine suppliers, with the aim of making medical records more accessible and reducing delays in care.
DHA Chief Executive Officer Engineer Anthony Lenaiyara said the agency is building an integrated health information system that will allow authorised healthcare providers to access patients’ medical histories across facilities.
The effort is intended to address gaps that arise when patients move between hospitals without accessible records of their previous treatment. Lenaiyara said better access to those histories would help reduce the need to repeat medical tests simply because results from another facility are unavailable.
Making patient records portable
For patients, the planned integration is meant to ensure that moving to a different hospital does not mean leaving their medical history behind. Authorised providers would be able to retrieve relevant information through the connected system rather than rely on records held separately at individual facilities.
The DHA is responsible for developing and maintaining the Comprehensive Integrated Health Information System, alongside the infrastructure needed to exchange health information.
Lenaiyara said standardising digital systems used by healthcare providers would help cut paperwork, lower administrative costs and shorten waiting times. It would also improve coordination between health facilities, health financing systems and other service providers.
These are the intended benefits of the rollout, which forms part of efforts to expand the use of digital technology in Kenya’s healthcare system.
Protecting sensitive health information
Lenaiyara identified the protection of medical information as a central responsibility of the agency, noting that health data is both sensitive for patients and strategically important to the country.
He said the DHA is working to ensure that information is stored and transmitted properly, with access restricted to authorised users. Secure information exchange is therefore a key part of the agency’s work to make records available across healthcare facilities.
The DHA was established under the Digital Health Act, 2023. The law provides the framework for digital health services and the integrated management of health information in Kenya.
Outpatient care and the referral system
Addressing concerns about access to outpatient services under the Social Health Authority (SHA), Lenaiyara said patients seeking routine care should ordinarily attend Level 2 to Level 4 facilities.
Level 5 and Level 6 hospitals, he said, should concentrate on specialised treatment and more complex cases rather than simple outpatient services. The referral structure is designed to ease congestion at higher-level hospitals while ensuring that patients needing specialised or critical care receive appropriate treatment.
Lenaiyara also distinguished the roles of the two agencies. SHA handles health financing under the social health insurance framework, while DHA supplies the digital infrastructure used to manage and exchange health information.
The distinction places the DHA’s work on connecting information systems, rather than managing health financing. Its rollout is aimed at supporting more coordinated care while protecting patient information and making medical histories portable across the health system.
