It's a Small World After All
In this week’s issue of ADVANCE, we took a peek at HIT progress in other countries with “EHR Around the World.” A number of nations have taken serious steps to adopt national EHR systems, and while the U.S. is building momentum on an individual level, it’s far from launching a centralized and interoperable system.
But the enviable progress being made across the pond isn’t all sunshine and data bliss. Just like in the U.S., privacy concerns, security breaches and authorization issues are making some citizens question whether border-to-border EHR is the way to go.
In the United Kingdom, NHS is looking to put patient records in a repository pronto, but citizens aren’t thrilled about having their medical information housed in a central area for physicians, researchers and—potentially—hackers to see. As luck (or poor security protocols) would have it, the news in Scotland is abuzz about privacy violations involving, well, news reporters. According to the BBC, seven journalists recently learned that their medical records may have been inappropriately accessed by a doctor. And where were the records held? In a new central database—not the NHS central repository, but a digital reserve, nonetheless. Breach of privacy isn’t a new concern (I’m sure a few Scots have been tracking the UCLA/Britney debacle), but it’s heightening patients’ security radars.
In the Netherlands, a national EHR database may be up and running when the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Day. According to this article, though, 15,000 people have already opted out of the open-access system. Hesitations revolve around data security: Who gets to see the record? Can the system be hacked? Who’s to blame if private information is compromised? Those who opt out will still have their records held in the repository, but anyone looking to access files must get thumbs up from the patient first. The approval clause offers a compromise, but patients will have to hope medical information floating in cyberspace can still be kept under lock and key.
So surprise, surprise: global EHR doesn’t fall far from the apples to oranges adage. Our health systems may be at different stages of developing EHR, but everyday patients share the same concerns. Ah yes, that creepy invasion of privacy feeling seems to be an innate human instinct that binds us all.