The ‘My Health Record’ data should be made available to policy researchers to improve the quality of health care in Australia. The primary purpose of the My Health Record data is to provide a central, lifelong depository for each patient’s medical records in an electronic format accessible by providers and patients. But the data should also be able to be analysed to understand wider patterns and trends in health care.
As the Productivity Commission has noted: “There are compelling grounds to use My Health Record as a platform for providing clinically-proven advice to patients, rather than just as a method for collecting data for clinicians.” But in this submission, Grattan Institute Health Program Director Stephen Duckett cautions that wider release of the data should only happen in ways that appropriately protect the privacy of patients and providers.