The purpose of the MHR is to provide a secure electronic summary of people's medical history[1] which will eventually include information such as current medications, adverse drug reactions, allergies and immunisation history in an easily accessible format.

[4] It is also reported that up to 10% of hospital admissions are due to adverse drug events, 18% are due to medical errors relating to lack of adequate available patient information,[5] and an estimated 25% of clinicians time is spent collecting information regarding the patient than actually treating them.

[7] The system went live on 1 July 2012[8] The Australian Government had a policy to develop a lifetime electronic health record for all its citizens.

PCEHR was the major national EHR initiative in Australia, being delivered through territory, state, and federal governments.

[10] In contrast a recent study published by Deloitte[11] projected the PCEHR to save approximately $11.5 billion over the 2010 to 2025 period.

The target figure was still considered achievable according to the DoHA deputy secretary Rosemary Huxtable who had released this information to a Senate Estimates committee.

They range from each States Departments of Health to Universities around Australia and National E-Health Transition Authority to name a few.

Patients were able to opt into the PCEHR by providing personal details such as full name, date of birth, Medicare/Department of Veteran Affairs number, and sex.

However, the usual IHE Patient Management system (PIX/PDQ) has been replaced by the National Health Identity (HI) Service.

In addition the usual authentication and security IHE profiles have been replaced by, or significantly modified to work with, existing infrastructure.

In any event, patients have a right under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to access the personal information that healthcare professionals hold about them.

[36] From November 2015 the My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth) was amended to reflect that representatives of persons who require decision-making support related to the Act must support the person to make decisions, or make decisions on their behalf, reflecting the individual's "will and preferences".

The PCEHR JAC meets at least four times per year, or more frequently as agreed between the System Operator and the Chair.

[41] There are 13,000 health providers involved, from specialists and general practice doctors to pharmacies and hospitals.

[needs update] Additional concerns have been raised around warrant-less law enforcement access to health data.