[LINK] Building the Australian National Health Network

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:55 AM 15/03/2010, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

>As a community  we need to monitor the cost of medical
>services and the economic/social costs of poor health and
>put in programs to improve the health of the community
>generally - through better nutrition, exercise, OH&S,
>reducing car accidents, alcohol and smoking related health
>issues  etc and better hospital care outcomes.

And there are a variety of ways to accomplish that objective without 
a complete set of records of every citizen's health problems. It's 
called sampling research. The only reason for a complete record that 
is identifiable to a person is for longitudinal studies. And even 
that should have blind indexes of the individuals involved to avoid 
researcher contamination of the results through that knowledge.

Population studies does NOT mean the 'whole' population. It is a 
research term of the level of perspective.

This is not an all or nothing process. And there is some confusion 
about life style choices and the real effects on an individual's 
health status. I surprise my doctor every time I walk in and he 
starts by telling me how he's going to make me well, only to discover 
after my blood tests that I'm probably healthier than he is, despite 
my lifestyle choices. If I'm the lucky one who doesn't use the health 
system much, which I don't, why should I have to pay full costs 
because of those choices and NOT wanting my records held in Canberra? 
Don't I pay my taxes like everyone else? Answer: yes. I have no 
choice because of the GST method of taking them: 10% of nearly every 
dollar I spend. I think that's fair, don't you?

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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