The preferred model for New Zealand's planned single electronic health record (EHR) is to create a national view of an individual's longitudinal record over time which would draw on regional solutions such as the South Island's HealthOne or the northern DHBs' proposed Northern EHR but would not include episodic medical information typically captured in a specialist electronic medical record (EMR).

According to a strategic assessment for establishing the EHR released this week by the NZ Ministry of Health, there is a preference in the industry to develop a longitudinal record that includes access to a wide set of health data via links and provides key information of value at the point of care, including diagnoses, medications, previous admissions, allergies and alerts.