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School of Engineering
and Information Sciences
Research
Seminars
(Autumn Term 2009-10)
Abstract
Electronic medical records: addressing privacy, confidentiality
& security concerns in the US and UK
Dr
Carlisle George
Middlesex University
The digitisation
of patient records has become a high priority for the new Obama
Administration. As President-elect, in a radio address on December
6th 2008, Mr Obama proposed to modernise the US health care system
by enabling hospitals to be connected to each other via the Internet,
and by making sure that every doctor's office and hospital use cutting
edge technology and electronic medical records (Obama, 2008). He
indicated that these measures would "cut red tape, prevent
medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year"
(Obama, 2008). Indeed, it has been shown that use of information
technology (IT) in health care reduces costs and medical errors
(Mannan et al, 2006). Surprisingly, not many US physicians make
use of electronic medical records. A 2008 study found that out of
2758 US physicians surveyed, only 4% had a fully functional electronic
records system (DesRoches et al, 2008). In the UK, since 2002, the
National Health Service (NHS) produced a strategy for developing
IT in the NHS (including use of electronic health records, and 24-hour
online access to patient records) resulting in the National Strategy
for IT (NPfIT) programme which is currently underway. Use of electronic
medical records raises many legal concerns especially related to
privacy, confidentiality and security. Further, the linking of different
medical databases increases these concerns (see Bercic & George,
2008). In view of the desire to increase IT use in health care,
legislators in the US have recently drafted new legislation to address
accompanying legal concerns (such as indicated above). This paper
compares US and UK legislation (current or pending) that address
concerns regarding the use of electronic medical records with a
view to analysing the approaches taken by the two legal systems.
References
Bercic,
B. & George, C. (2008). Compiling medical data into national
medical databases - legitimate practice or data protection concern?
In Penny Duquenoy, Carlisle George, & Kai Kimppa (Eds.) Ethical,
Legal and Social Issues in Medical Informatics, Idea Group Inc.
USA, 2008.
DesRoches,
C.M., Campbell, E.G., Rao, S.R., Donelan, K., Ferris, T.G., Jha,
A., Kaushal, R., Levy, D.E., Rosenbaum, S., Shields, A.E., &
Blumenthal, D. (2008). Electronic Health Records in Ambulatory Care
- A National Survey of Physicians, The New England Journal of Medicine,
Volume 359: 50-60, Number 1, July 3, 2008.
Mannan, R., Murphy, J. & Jones, M. (2006). Is primary care ready
to embrace e-health? A qualitative study of staff in a London primary
trust, Informatics in Primary Care, Vol 14, pp 121-31.
NHS
(1998), Information for Health. Available at:
https://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4014469.pdf
NHS
(2002). Delivering 21st Century IT Support for the NHS. Available
at:
https://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4071684.pdf
Obama,
B. (2008). Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama Radio Address
on the Economy, Saturday, December 6, 2008. Available at: https://change.gov/newsroom/entry/the_key_parts_of_the_jobs_plan
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