International Journal of Medical Informatics (2004) 73, 217—227 The Malaysian Telehealth Flagship Application: a national approach to health data protection and utilisation and consumer rights Jai Mohan* , Raja Razali Raja Yaacob Malaysian Health Informatics Association, Apt 2A, 8 Jalan Perumahan Gurney, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia KEYWORDS Malaysia; Telemedicine; Data protection; Confidentiality Summary Telehealth refers to the integration of information, telecommunication, human—machine interface technologies and health technologies to deliver health care, to promote the heath status of the people and to create health. The Malaysian Telehealth Application [Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress on Medical Informatics, 1998, p. 1282] will, on completion, provide every resident of the countryanelectronicLifetimeHealthRecord(LHR)andLifetimeHealthPlan(LHP).He or she will also hold a smart card that will contain a subset of the data in the Lifetime Health Record. These will be the means by which Malaysians will receive ‘‘seamless continuous quality care’’ across a range of health facilities and health care providers, and by which Malaysia’s health goal of a nation of ‘‘healthy individuals, families and communities’’ is achieved. The challenges to security and privacy in providing access to an electronic Lifetime Health Record at private and government health facilities and to the electronic Lifetime Health Plan at homes of consumers require not only technicalmechanismsbutalsonationalpoliciesandpracticesaddressingthreatswhile facilitating access to health data during health encounters in different care settings. Organisational policies establish the goals that technical mechanisms serve. They should outline appropriate uses and access to information, create mechanisms for preventing and detecting violations, and set sanctions for violations. Some interesting innovations have been used to address these issues against the background of the launching of the multimedia supercorridor (MSC) in Malaysia. © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. 1. Background 1.1. MSC Flagship Applications In mid-1996, the Malaysian Government launched the multimedia supercorridor (MSC) [2]. It is in- tended to nurture Vision 2020, a national agenda *Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jmohan@pc.jaring.my (J. Mohan), raja@medical-online.net (R. Razali Raja Yaacob). that sets out specific goals and objectives for long-term development in order to achieve devel- oped country status by 2020. The MSC is actually a greenfield ‘‘corridor’’ 15km wide by 50km long, which starts from the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) (itself an intelligent precinct that houses the world’s tallest buildings) down south to the site of the region’s largest international airport, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Inside sit two of the world’s first smart cities: Putrajaya [3] and Cyberjaya [4]. Putrajaya is the new seat of government and administrative capital 1386-5056/$ — see front matter © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2003.11.023