Debate: Australians Should Not Have a Choice Regarding My Health Record

Running head: DEBATE 1
Debate: Australians Should Not Have a Choice Regarding My Health Record
Name
Institutional Affiliation

DEBATE 2
Australians Should Have a Choice Regarding My Health Record
The citizens of Australia should have a choice regarding my health record. They
should be given the liberty to choose whether to use the database or not. Therefore, it should
not be made compulsory.
I disagree with Barsha’s argues that my health record has made healthcare delivery
faster. Instead, it has not been beneficial to a large proportion of Australia’s population. It is
complicated and requires knowledge and skills to utilize. For instance Walsh et al. (2017)
conducted a heuristic evaluation to understand the usability of my health record and argued
that most of its usability functions are non-beneficial to users with low literacy regarding e-
health. For instance, the website communicates poorly to the user as it lacks visuals and
audios, uses jargon instead of plain and straightforward language, and had the image of the
physician on the home page. Despite the argument that the information is uploaded by
healthcare professionals and upholds beneficence, it is not usable as it uses professional
language that is not understood but ordinary citizens, who are the target beneficiaries.
Therefore, the usability of the database by all Australians is not guaranteed.
Also, I disagree with the argument that my health record reduces errors and promotes
patient privacy. Menachemi and Collum (2011) pointed out that the increased electronic
exchange of information poses a risk to the confidentiality of patients. The use of my health
record may cause medical errors due to poor designs of the system interfaces and inadequate
training of the end-users. Medical errors result to serious adverse effects for patients.
Further, the use of my health records may expose the end-users to strong emotional
responses and alteration of their workflow in their quest to adapt to the technological
advancements. Therefore, my health record is not as safe and beneficial as Barsha described
it.