Head Tale

I had an appointment with a specialist last week and during the course of it, he asked me about a procedure I'd had over ten years ago.  Being so long ago, I couldn't remember some of the important details such as what the exact sequence of events leading to me having this procedure was or who were some of the doctors who'd seen me when the issue was discovered.

(I hasten to add, this isn't anything serious or life-threatening.  Just a specialist doing a good job of being thorough and ensuring that nothing's changed significantly in the intervening years.)

Anyhow, that got me thinking about a question I've often asked myself in the past, when I've gone to my doctor here or especially when I moved provinces and had to see new doctors – namely, why don't we have a national online database of our health records? 

I know, I know – security would be a HUGE issue as would the cost to set it up initially.  But in a world where we do something as sensitive as our banking online, is it much of a leap to have our complete medical history available?  (Okay, I admit – if someone gets into your bank account, they probably can't do a lot of mischief and after you set-up a new credit card and account, I assume you're good to go.  But if a hacker gets in and finds out you have a heart condition or mental health issues or AIDS, that's something a phone call won't change.) 

Still, I can't help but think that the advantages of a system like this would greatly outweigh the potential negatives, especially once it was up and running and the initial resistance (which is inevitable) was overcome.  If it was highly secure (like bank security times a million) with double-locks – maybe everytime you went to the  doctor/dentist/optometrist or whoever, both you and they had to log-in to record the session?  Or only doctors you authorize could browse your record?

Pros
– easy transfer of patient information as they move between both doctors and geographic locations
– provides a comprehensive history in one place – part of your medical history isn't in one office, another part somewhere else and yet another part
– would allow remote access by specialists and others without the need for expensive and time-consuming photocopying/faxing
– highly accurate statistics could be pulled anonymously for various diseases, populations, age groups, regions and so on. 
– data would be more secure in the sense that a patient's records would be stored off-site (and likely backed up constantly somewhere else.)  This could be a cost-saving for doctors who no longer need to store massive amounts of information in their offices.

Cons
– security of the information would be a massive concern.  A project like this might even attract hackers eager to test their skills.
– the system would have to be incredibly robust to be able to record the range of info that a doctor can quickly record with pen and paper – not just written notes but sketches, diagrams, etc.
– the cost, especially of setting up such a system would be huge as would ongoing maintenance/upgrading.  Does every doctor's office have to buy a special computer?  Hire new staff to do the entry?
– health is a provincial responsibility but this would have to be a federal initiative to be successful.  Not sure on how the politics of the Canada Health Act work but it would mean every provincial health minister would have to sign-on.

I don't know – it's a massive idea but so was the idea of universal health care in the first place.  And that turned out pretty good!