Letter to
Government to this effect sent several years ago.
The advantages
associated with the development of centralized medical records are immense and
as such I am a reluctant supporter of their introduction. As an individual
greatly concerned with the encroachment of government into peoples personal
lives and having witnessed the miss-utilization of other legislation, the
introduction of electronic medical records is being considered with extreme
trepidation. When one considers abuses of such data, the recent loss of British
medical data by loss of a hard drive or like Safeway's selling of
pharmaceutical records to insurance companies in the United States, the
examples are endless; this trepidation is most certainly justified. In Canada,
we have enjoyed a relatively pristine history with respect to medical
discrimination, yet present are a few skeletons in our national closet, such as
state sterilization of person's afflicted with non - genetic handicaps. When we
dare to cast an eye to Europe's recent history and imagine the implications of
this information in the hands of people gripped by the most sinister ideology, one
begins to wonder whether the exercise is prudent at all. It is only the
presence of a massive volume of information that is presently remaining
un-captured and the promise that information offers for our population's
benefit that compels this action; paradoxically, in BC we have all the exposure
to centralised medical records and none of the benefits. The people responsible
for the design of the systems associated with the capture and storage of this
most sensitive data must be cognisant of the fact that in the contemporary
context, this exercise seems benign enough, but history is full of examples of
the errant use of such information.
It is a most
fundamental right to refuse medical treatment and by extension one should be
able to refuse to have medical treatment recorded. A citizen should be allowed
to retain control of their medical data. At present databases administered by
medical professionals provides some insight to how causally the stewardship of
such sensitive data can be. Presently any prescription you purchase in British
Columbia is captured in the Pharmacy database and any pharmacist in the province
with your name can search your records. You can write a letter to the
government for a copy of your medical billing records and they are sent to you
via the mail, absent any verification of who gets them at the point of pick up.
We need to extend at least the same level of security to medical data as we do
our financial data. If people want access to my bank information they need my
bank card and a P.I.N. The technology is in place to extend an individual
control over their personal data and this technology must be accessed,
especially in the case of sensitive medical information.
At the risk of being cynical, I have little confidence that people are taking
seriously enough the implications of such data systems in the context of the
full backdrop of human history. There is complacency, a casual sense it will be
ok by governments. This is most alarming. There is a generalised acceptance of
paternalism on the part of the populous that prevents people from arousing from
apathy to challenge these kinds of developments.
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