[LINK] Your Medicare records online

[Jan Whitaker]

At 11:30 AM 3/03/2010, Ivan Trundle you wrote:
>On the one hand, we complain that paper records are archaic and 
>impossible to transfer from one healthcare provider to another, and 
>seek a better system of doing so, yet we complain when they are 
>digitised and made accessible. We can't have it both ways.

Who's complaining? There may be a subset of society who would benefit 
[some elderly, some with chronic care needs who cross among lots of 
providers, some with special needs], but not the whole bloomin' 
population! This is the same problem we faced with the Access Card -- 
to make it affordable, it had to be national to everybody. Same with 
this. So we all have to be included to make the numbers add up, 
whether we want it or not.

I attended an early panel by Nehta a few years ago [this has been 
dragging out a LONG time, and many staff have left in disgust]. At 
that meeting my jaw hit the floor when we were told it was compulsory 
and you got a number whether you wanted one or not: no argument. Of 
course, I was also told at the same meeting by their technology 
'manager' [can't recall his real title] that the health record 
information would be centrally held. We nearly came to blows on that 
one. He had made up his mind and that's the way it was going to be. I 
believe the jury may be out again on that little concept. But we do 
not know. Nehta has managed to anger so many consumer advocates that 
many of us don't turn up any more. Consultation was a farce. [sorry 
if anyone reading this doesn't like it, but I'm just being brutally honest]


>Yes, data honey pots are attractive to miscreants, and yes, security 
>of any such data repository needs to be tight - but how do we 
>properly reconcile the need to share data whilst maintaining privacy?

Data is being shared now. It may not be electronically shared, but it 
is being shared among THOSE WHO NEED IT. There is also this 
assumption that the data is relatively static. It is NOT. We get 
sicker and we get better. What was in the record last month may no 
longer be relevant. I had a bit removed that solved a problem in 
December. The symptoms are gone. I am well. No drama. Will I forget 
that set of symptoms and the fix for it? Unlikely. Will my 
specialist? Nope. Is there an accessible record? Of course there is. 
Can it be shared? Yes. Who sees it? Those who were involved in the 
case, not any and every health provider on the proposed linked system.

The arguments for this 'system' aren't proven. The risk analysis 
hasn't been done because there is no system to analyse. If that work 
has been done, where is it?

Sorry, I'll go back in my box for awhile.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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