Cancer Drug Pre-screening Digitalized with FHIR Format, Reducing Wait Time from 1-2 Weeks to One Day

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The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) held a 'Cancer Treatment Digital Governance Observation Meeting' to promote quality improvement and digitalization in medicine. According to Director Chen Liang-yu, the international standard FHIR format has been adopted for cancer drug pre-screening this year, making the process more transparent and efficient. The screening period, which previously took 1–2 weeks, can now be reduced to one day at facilities that apply using the FHIR format. Currently, there are 69 hospitals that have introduced pre-screening with this FHIR format, and 20 of them have completed construction/implementation. Furthermore, the NHIA is building structured and automated screening mechanisms for various cancer coverage regulations to prevent discrepancies in interpretation or incomplete applications. In addition to the NHI Cloud System established since 2013, new features added in November include graphical querying of test results and AI-powered integrated query interfaces for medical imaging reports, strengthening clinical decision support. This allows patients to digitally access test results even when receiving care across different hospitals or from different doctors, reducing redundant checks and travel time.