Who should see our health records?

Monday, June 11, 2007

Who should see our health records?

A new research project will investigate public attitudes towards the sharing of confidential personal health information held in electronic health records.

Researcher Dr Dick Whiddett says the issue is topical and important, given that the Government’s health care strategy provides for more sharing and integration of such information between, for example, general practitioners, hospitals and other agencies.

The Massey University is the first New Zealand-wide research on the issue. As well as providing a clearer picture of attitudes, it will assist policy making by identifying the requirements for an electronic consent system that would allow patients to specify who they want to be able to access the information

Dr Whiddett, from the Department of Information Systems, says if patients think personal information might be distributed against their wishes, they may forego treatment or be reluctant to disclose information that may be crucial to diagnosis and treatment.

“E-health – or the application of modern information and computer technologies to the delivery of modern healthcare – can lead to major health benefits and improved outcomes,” he says. “But it can also increase threats to patient privacy. To realise the benefits of e-health systems we need to have a better understanding of the privacy aspects so that we can design systems that not only reduce these threats but actually enhance and protect privacy.”

He says such systems, particularly new mobile technologies, also offer opportunities to deliver more effective care to communities with special needs such as indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and individuals with disabilities and chronic diseases.

Pilot studies by the research team have already shown that public attitudes towards the use of their health information vary widely between individuals, reflecting similar overseas studies. Dr Whiddett says the new study will clarify the range of these attitudes and also aim to identify the extent to which the attitudes of Maori respondents are different from the others.

He notes that the pilot studies indicated that in general people are happy to have their information shared between general practitioners and hospitals, but less happy to have it shared with, for example, Work and Income New Zealand.

The inter-disciplinary, cross-campus project involves Dr Whiddett and Inga Hunter from the Department of Information Systems in the College of Business, Professor Tony Norris and Claire Jordon from the Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences in the College of Sciences, and John Waldon from the School of Maori Studies in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

It has just received a funding grant of $160,000 from the Health Research Council.

ENDS