Abstract

MARQUES RICARTE, Ivan Luiz. Perceptions of privacy in national electronic health record systems: the Australian case. Rev. cuba. inf. cienc. salud [online]. 2020, vol.31, n.1, e1480.  Epub May 02, 2020. ISSN 2307-2113.

The objective of this paper was to explore privacy issues addressed by national electronic health record systems, with a case study of Australia's My Health Record system. Privacy issues were organized according to a conceptual framework of informational privacy that included corporate privacy practices and customer behavior. After searching bibliographic databases covering health, 18 articles were selected and analyzed that addressed the government's privacy practices, users' perceptions or attitudes, as well as their intentions or behavior related to informational privacy. Regarding privacy practices, the aspects of collecting and storing patient information were addressed, as well as the degree of transparency and control exercised by the patient over their data. With regard to patients' perception, there is a fear of improper access to data as well as identity theft and misuse of information by insurance companies or employers, but this fear does not differ from that when information is available on paper support. Finally, as the patient has access to health information, there is a need for these patients to be able to understand what has been recorded, i.e. there is a demand for better health literacy, but health professionals fear that this access by patients may lead to unnecessary confusion and worry, leading to an increased workload. It is concluded that the patient-controlled electronic health record at the national level can be an effective instrument for empowering citizens to control their health and a motivator to expand the conditions of their health literacy. However, these privacy issues call for an explicit and clear position by governments to ensure the confidentiality of the data and secondary uses that may be made of this information.

Keywords : Electronic Health Records; Privacy; Health Systems.

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