The other day, in classs, we discussed the idea of sharing our medical information between doctors and hospitals. Some would suggest that we create a national registry for this information. Although, this may on paper, sound like a wonderful way to enter to save money on health insurance, we have to remember who we are talking about. Our government and health industry have a lot to learn about protecting and securing our personal and medical information.
On thing nice about the internet, is that all you have to do is put in key words about an issue, or problem, and a wealth of information appears. I was listening to TV news the other night, when Providence Hospital announced that they had a breach of a harddrive. If you put in "Government lost harddrives", you will not have enough time in your lifetime to research all their screw-ups. I would love to think that more doctors having my medical information could help save my life one day, but at what potential cost to my private information.
We could debate the fact that it would be a great idea. But, these people are the biggest bunglers of personal information, ever. I do not believe that we should trust these people with any amount of non-essential information. They, along with others, should be given information on a "need-to-know" basis.
I agree that medical info should be given on a need to know basis, at least until a better, fool proof system is establised. What if people could carry all of their current health info with them contained in an RFID chip on their health insurance card? Health info could be added to the chip as its acquired and then when you get to the DR all you have to do is scan your card and BAM! all your info is there for the DR to see. Admittedly this could cause some issues, like what if you dont have your card? Maybe the chip could be on all drivers licenses?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, as much as we'd like to believe HIPPA laws will protect us, there really is no guarantee of our privacy. It is unfortunate that we are so worried that sharing our medical information will result in an invasion of privacy, because it could potentially save lives.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using technology to enhance every part of our life, and in the medical industry, this sharing of information would make things faster and easier (as does every other form of technology). In life or death situations, ones ability to get medical information quickly could be very helpful. Also, the input of information into a system would make things easier to read because you would be avoiding the "doctor's" handwriting. All information would be in one place and you wouldn't need to worry about lost papers. However, I am aftaid of the "breach of harddrive issue you mentioned. There are so many upsides to having this type of technology in the medical industry, but is this one downside big enough to stop people from moving forward with it?
ReplyDeletesharing medical information between doctors and hospitals is a really good idea. In China, every patient will get a little notebook. It records their medical information. But it is not so successful. Because the hand writing is hard to recognize. Now, we can do it based on a computer system. It will be better.
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