Absolutely - destroying digital health data from a digital health system will remove it from that one place but we also need to consider what if there was an email referral or correspondence between clinicians, what about handover reports if these were saved on a word or excel document.
My Sunday thought is, have we considered the quality of the information in the notes and whether there is an underlying implicit assumption of a particular paradigm or model of care that is now obsolete? A shorter version of that is just because data exists does not mean it is accurate or still relevant.
Data quality is proving to be a major issue as we move to a single system and try to connect the dots between districts.
Absolutely Peter. I had chicken pox as a child (in another country). This is a piece of information that I think is quite valuable as it means I have an increased risk of shingles, decades on.
As a patient:
I want a cradle to grave health record, to help navigate risks like this. I am sure that the data was captured in a different format, and different terminology, than would be used today.
I also want access to medical family history, for similar reasons. I learned a few years ago that my family has a high cancer incidence, but hadn’t heard about this before because “we don’t talk about things like that.” Naturally there are consent issues to sort in this space.
If a health provider/organisation intends or needs to destroy my personal health information, I’d want the chance to get a copy of it before they do that.
2 Likes