technology
ACI: Firstly, can you explain what My
Health Record is and what kind of
information it will contain?
Are you in or out?
The case for carers to opt
into My Health Record.
Nerida Croker interviewed by Conor Burke
M
y Health Record is proving to
be a controversial addition
to the health system. With
the opt‑out deadline now extended to
31 January, parliament is still haggling over
the final details of the rollout. Concerns
remain over privacy and provisions for
children aged 14–17.
To add further intrigue, as reported by
The Sydney Morning Herald, the director
of privacy at the company behind the
My Health Record has quit amid claims that
Health Minister Greg Hunt is not taking
privacy concerns seriously.
Nerida Croker, pharmacy engagement
officer with the Central and Eastern Sydney
PHN, said: “From the enquiry, the Australian
Digital Health Agency are listening to
the concerns and are considering the
recommendations which have been made.
In particular, some of those issues were
around the 14 to 17-year-old age group,
which are considered a vulnerable group.
Other recommendations, such as increasing
penalties for misuse have been acted on by
the federal health minister, Greg Hunt.”
In the midst of all this, six million
Australians voluntarily opted in and, for
some, life has become more manageable.
Carers Australia chief executive Ara
Cresswell told Aged Care Insite that they
had some initial concerns, like many,
surrounding privacy of patients.
“We did become concerned when
serious privacy concerns began to emerge
34 agedcareinsite.com.au
in July. We had already been assured that
patients’ information could not be shared
with organisations such as insurance
agencies or employers,” Cresswell said.
“What we were not aware of was that the
2012 legislation allowed for information
to be passed over to law enforcement
agencies and other government
services, including for the protection
of public revenue, which could mean
that information unrelated to a person’s
health could be used for the purposes of
questioning their social security eligibility,
evaluating their tax status or, in the case
of criminal investigations, handed over
to police. Since then, legislation has
been introduced to parliament which we
understand will address these concerns.”
However, she sees the positives as a
great way of alleviating some stressors that
carers face day in, day out.
“Carers Australia has been a strong
advocate of My Health Record on the
grounds that it can bring strong benefits to
the health outcomes of those they care for
and relieve both patients and their carers of
the stress of trying to remember the timing
and outcomes of tests, medication and
other important information which needs
to be passed on to medical professionals.
“Remembering these things can be
especially stressful in times of emergency.
My Health Record also mitigates one of the
chief irritations of carers and those they
care for: having to recount medical history
over and over again,” she said.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Croker, prior
to the most recent slew of My Health Record
announcements, to unpack some of the key
issues and potential benefits with the system.
NC: My Health Record is going to be an
electronic summary of an individual’s
health information. It’s not every piece of
information about your health, but it does
have all the most important information.
Your GP can add a shared health
summary that will have information like
diagnoses, medications, allergies and
vaccinations. Other healthcare providers
can also add information, like a hospital
discharge if you’ve been in hospital,
or pathology or imaging reports. Your
pharmacy can add your dispensing
records, so there’ll be an up-to-date list
of medications.
All of that is going to be accessible 24/7
online by you as a patient or, if you wish,
you can share it with your healthcare
providers. So, you’ll be able to take that
information with you if you go on a holiday
and you need to see a doctor in Perth or
something. You’ll be able to provide that
to them, and you’ll also be able to access
that information yourself if you wanted to
at any time.
How did this all come about? Was it
something that medical professionals
were calling for?
That’s a good question. It’s a federal
government program. I think the federal
government did want to do this because
of the benefits, both to the system and
to patients. I’m not sure who would be
pushing that the most.
There are lots of benefits for patients
and for healthcare providers to all be on
the same page. Potentially, there are going
to be fewer medication errors and adverse
effects from medications. At the moment,
if you go to hospital in the middle of the
night, it might be quite difficult for doctors
to find out what medications you’re on,
what things you might be allergic to and so
on. That could lead to significant issues.
And it’s a significant cost to our healthcare
system in terms of dollar value when there
are these kind of events. Every year, there
are about 230,000 admissions to hospital
for medication adverse effects events.
The other thing, of course, is that a lot
of things get duplicated. At the moment,
your GP might order pathology and then a
specialist might order the same pathology.
And then, if you go to hospital, they might
do the same pathology again. So, about
20 per cent is being duplicated. Again, that
will be a cost saving to the government if