SEPTEMBER 2009

IN THIS ISSUE

Please Select an Article to Read

• When 10% is material: breast screening case appealed
• Two Australian courts uphold the right to refuse medical treatment
• Abortion in Australia: the legal pitfalls
• Developments in E-Health
• Insurance and indemnity for human research
• Growth attenuation therapy for disabled children

 

Developments in E-Health

In 2006, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a national approach to developing, implementing and operating systems for individual and healthcare provider identifiers as part of accelerating work on electronic health records to improve the safety of patients and improve efficiency for healthcare providers.

The legislative framework to underpin implementation of healthcare identifiers and the establishment of appropriate national privacy arrangements for health information is currently being developed collaboratively by Commonwealth, State and Territory health departments.

The Australian Health Ministers’ Conference has asked for consultations to be held so that a broad range of perspectives can contribute to making the legislation robust and effective, protecting the privacy of personal information while achieving the healthcare benefits that can be gained through better sharing of health information.

A discussion paper has been released which describes and seeks comments on legislative proposals to support the establishment and implementation of unique identifies for healthcare purposes and the privacy of health information. The discussion paper is now available.

The scope of this paper is limited to the regulatory issues relating to the establishment of a national Healthcare Identifier Service and to the national health information privacy regulation.

While the date for submissions recently closed on 14 August 2009, the discussion paper will be of continuing interest to many.

Google and Microsoft enter the E-Health space: has the Government missed the boat?

While the Australian Government E-Health initiative wends its way forward, the lengthy period of its gestation has given rise to parallel E-Health systems. Different State and Territory Governments have generated more limited E-Health projects of their own, perhaps out of frustration at the time taken for a national Government system.

In addition to these Australian Government initiatives, last year Google and Microsoft began offering individuals their own E-Health option. It is free and enables individuals to keep all their health information in one central downloadable place. Google calls its offering Google Health, while Microsoft’s goes by the name of HealthVault. Both these E-Health systems are already operating elsewhere, with Google’s already available in Australia.

There are some enormous potential benefits to Google and Microsoft in aggregating large amounts of health information on their servers. Without disrupting the privacy of any individuals, they have the opportunity to access that health information in de-identified form. The commercial value of that information is clear. For example, it will enable them to know by postcode how many people suffer from particular conditions and target marketing to those postcodes. They can also on-sell that information to the health industry.

 

Written by Geoff Bloom, Partner