DIGITISED RECORDS AND PATIENT RIGHTS
yy The threat of electronic data misuse is growing,
with incidents of sensitive data lying unprotected,
and data theft and hacking becoming routine.
These concerns assume significance in the context
of recent government efforts to introduce a system
for electronic health records.
What is Medical information?
yy Details such as bodily functions, physical
anatomy, sexuality, a history of substance abuse,
psychological issues or any diagnosis or prognosis
can be of an extremely sensitive nature.
What are the concerns?
yy Patients expect that such information will not
be readily known to third parties, including even
the closest of relations, and are willing to expose
only as much information as is necessary for self-
benefit, and not for purposes that fall outside it.
yy The lack of safeguards risks their being socially
isolated or discriminated against.
yy Apprehension over lack of safeguards can result
in patients not revealing the correct information,
leading to inaccurate medical treatment.
yy Instances of non-physicians improperly viewing
the e-health records of celebrities without any
SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY
The Best IAS Academy in South India
This file is part of Shankar IAS Academy mobile Application. To access other files please download
Shankar IAS Academy App. available for Android, iphone and Windows.
legitimate reasons, health records being found
on hard-drives being sold on e-bay, and medical
information being stolen from desktops and
laptops are common in the West.
yy It has also been reported that medical records are
worth more to hackers than financial information,
and they are misused to buy drugs and medical
equipment for resale and for making false
insurance claims.
What is Need for Digitising health records?
yy In the last few years, the Indian government
has taken steps to digitise the health records of
patients across the country.
yy This has many potential benefits, including
streamlining the interaction between doctors and
patients, more accurate diagnosis and therapy due
to the availability of complete medical history,
creating a repository of up-to-date health data,
avoiding repeated medical investigations and
reducing paperwork.
yy However, in light of the major security issues
that digitisation poses, before such a system can
be implemented nationwide, adequate safeguards
need to be put in place to ensure the privacy of
patients and data security.
SINCE 2004
What are the steps taken by Govt?
yy The government is in the process of setting up an
Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), yy
which will ensure the interoperability of health
records in any corner of the country.
yy A National e-Health Authority (NeHA) has been
proposed to develop the IHIP, encourage the
adoption and promotion of e-health standards How to strengthen the EHRS?
and enforce the laws and regulations relating
to the privacy and security of patient health yy
information and records.
yy The government has begun the process of updating
infrastructure in district and sub-district hospitals
under the National Health Mission; 36 large yy
government hospitals are currently registering
patients online.
yy To operationalise these measures, the government
notified the Electronic Health Record Standards yy
(EHRS) in 2013 which introduced a uniform
system for the maintenance of Electronic Medical
Records/Electronic Health Records by healthcare yy
providers in the country.
yy This included standards for interoperability, yy
guidelines for hardware, networking and
connectivity as well as specifications on data
*****
SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY
The Best IAS Academy in South India
This file is part of Shankar IAS Academy mobile Application. To access other files please download
Shankar IAS Academy App. available for Android, iphone and Windows.
ownership of electronic health records, data
privacy and security.
The EHRS were recently revised and opened for
public comments and an attempt has been made
to take into account new forms of technology and
upgrade the standards in line with international
best practices.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT)
Act, have criticism for being vague and imprecise.
Government should mitigate the flaws in the IT
Act by strengthening the EHRS.
For the standards to be effective and enforceable,
sufficient powers to implement and enforce them
must be vested in the NeHA, proposed to be set
up through an appropriate legislation.
This legislation also proposes to deal with issues
relating to privacy and confidentiality of patients
electronic health records.
Requires the rights and obligations under the
EHRS to be made more clear and concrete.
This would facilitate better implementation and
provide patients with enhanced security and
privacy with respect to their medical records.
SINCE 2004