My Health Record Reform - A balance between privacy and safety

“Has the Australian Federal government made a
persuasive case for the introduction of My Health
Record reform given the privacy implications?”

My health record – A privacy concern or an actual reform?
“My Health Record Reform – A balance between the patient’s right to safety and clinician’s
need to information or Not?” This has been one of the most debated issues in Australia,
regarding the privacy concerns related to the use of this application. Despite of all the things
which have been discussed, this initiative of Australian Federal Government has proven out
to be extremely beneficial.
The Australian Federal government launched the My Health Record to provide a summary of
the key health information to the Australians. It ensures better health outcomes for the
patients and gives the relevant information to the specialists and doctors who are treating the
patient. My Health Record can be seen as an online summary of the key health information of
the patient. In the time period of 3 months, beginning from 16th July to 15th October, all the
Australians were offered to opt out of the services of My Health Record in case they choose
not to be entertained by this service and do not want their health records to be shared online
(ABC, 2018). The governments of all the states and territories in Australia welcomed this
application and extended their full support to it. These governments agreed to launch this
service at the COAG Health Council in August 2017. My Health Record application also had
full support of the all the medical councils of Australia including the Royal College of
Australian General Practitioners, Australian Medical Association, Australian Healthcare and
Hospitals Association Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Consumers Health Forum and
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (Australian Digital Health Agency, 2018).
Since, the time this application has been launched, there have been debates among the
laureates as well as the common public regarding the privacy of the health information
displayed by My Health Record. The Australian Federal Government has taken all the
measures which ensure the privacy of the safety information displayed online. They have
ensured that the patients are able to view their health information from any part of the world

using any device or computer which is connected to internet (Australian Digital Health
Agency, 2018). This system will also allow the healthcare professionals to track the
information about their patients such as their discharge summaries, shared health summates,
dispense records, pathology reports, diagnosing imaging reports and prescriptions.
Maintenance of health will be easy for both the patients as well as the healthcare
professionals as a result of this service launched by Australian Federal Government
(Australian Digital Health Agency, 2018).
As mentioned above, there has been criticism for this application relating to the privacy
issues. Many people are not convinced by the privacy framework of this service as they
believe that it resembles to the privacy system of a heath scheme launched by UK a few years
back which failed miserably. According to the reports of The Guardian, this service uses the
privacy framework which is identical to the privacy policy of a failed health system in
England. The privacy framework of the service was breached by the hackers in England and
they sold the data of the companies to the insurance and drug companies in the UK (Zhou,
2018). As per the reports, My Health Record stores the health data of the patients in Australia
and shares it among the medical service providers to enhance the quality of service of the
health and care for the patients. But, such data are is at high risk of being leaked or sold to the
insurance and drug companies, which, in turn, use this data to increase the number of clients
for them. It can also be seen as the breach of the privacy rights of the patients. Also, the
person involved with the launch of care data in England, Tim Kesley, is the main person
behind the development of the My Health Record privacy framework. The parallels between
the launch of this service in both the countries have raised concern for the experts about the
repetition of history and failing of this system in Australia as well (Zhou, 2018).
Another concern which has been raised by the privacy advocates is that, if, the healthcare
data of the patients leaks anyhow, it may lead to discrimination in the society of the people