That is evident when you consider the staggering amount of personal detail that half a billion people have divulged on Facebook. Also the federal government now routinely allows you to store and access some very private information online, such as your income tax return. However, the most ambitious plan of all is to have the medical history or every Canadian accessible online. It is a concept filled with great hope marred by some notable failures, and it relies on everyone's trust in the system.
In 2001 the federal government began a partnership with each provincial health ministry to put everyone's health records online. The program is called Canada Health Infoway (www.infoway-inforoute.ca).
and while progress has been slow, 2016 is now the target to have each Canadian's electronic health record (EHR) -including medications, surgical procedures, past history and conditions -online for access by health professionals.
Needless to say, compiling a person's EHR is a daunting task. Just look at your own medical history and you'll see a patchwork of data that involves several doctors, pharmacies, and numerous tests and results conducted at different institutions and clinics.
On top of that it is the responsibility of each provincial health ministry to digitize millions of pieces of paper filled with medical details. In Ontario the eHealth scandal slowed the whole process while wasting over a billion dollars and culminated in the removal at the highest echelons of some of the people responsible. It also put into question the trust that ordinary citizens place in the hands of bureaucrats to protect their private information. Nevertheless, the benefits of the whole process are obvious. If you had a medical crisis while traveling, any physician anywhere in the country could access everything needed to ensure prompt and safe treatment. Drug interactions and unnecessary tests could be avoided with a few mouse clicks.
I know someone who was undergoing treatment at two hospitals and I was often amazed and appalled at how test results and treatment details had to be faxed or physically carried between hospitals, which inevitably caused delays and a lot of stress.
However, while you're waiting for the government to put your EHR online, you could do it yourself. If you had all of your medical records securely stored online then you could authorize any doctor, nurse or pharmacist in the world to access them in case of an emergency. Microsoft has set up a very ambitious health site called Healthvault (www.healthvault.com).
but at present it's only accessible by residents of the U.S. But, if you have a Google email account, then you can access Google Health (www.google.com/health).
and use its free services no matter where you live. You'll have to manually enter all of your records such as prescription details, medical conditions, precautions, and so forth, but you can also upload images and files and itemize all of your health insurance details online. Besides storing your information, the site also allows you to track your physical fitness progress or any other details of a treatment plan.
If the concept of storing your EHR online is a concern, then you can use a free program called Hey Doc!, available from SD Software (www.sdsoftware.org).
You can enter tons of information in numerous categories but all of the info resides on your computer, not on the Internet. Then when you're planning a trip you can print out anything you want and carry it with you or put all of the info on a netbook or USB flash drive. Online or not, your computer could make all of your critical medical information available almost immediately when it matters.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ray Saitz
Quelle/Source: The Peterborough Examiner, 27.01.2011
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