Research archive: Vol. 34 No.1

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Volume 34 Number 1: >> Electronic Health Records: security, safety and archiving.

	Assessing the concordance of trauma registry data and hospital records Kirsten McKenzie, Sue Walker, Andrea Besenyei,Leanne M Aitken and Bridget Allison [ PDF ] Abstract This study examined the concordance of trauma registry and hospital records in Queensland in 1998. The design involved a retrospective review of records and documentation comparison. Demographic variables from the registry were matched to hospital data to obtain admission/diagnoses data. There were four main types of error identified which included: failure to identify relevant patients, inappropriate inclusion of patients, insufficient/inaccurate data in hospital records, and insufficient/inaccurate data in the trauma registry. Of the 87 cases with data quality issues, 63% were due to Queensland Trauma Registry (QTR) data errors, 5% were due to hospital data errors, and in 32% of cases the source of errors was undetermined. Of the potential 1759 trauma cases from 1998, 12 cases should have been included in the registry that were not, 71 cases should not have been included in the registry, and 4 cases were removed from the study due to insufficient or inaccurate hospital record data. Overall, a concordance rate of approximately 95% was found between the trauma registry records and the hospital records.
	Patients’ perceptions of general practitioners using computers during the patient-doctor consultation Joanne Callen, Megan Bevis and Jean McIntosh [ PDF ] Abstract In this study 85 adult patients attending a Sydney general practice were asked for their views on computer-assisted consultations; 77 (91%) agreed to participate. In general, patients agreed they could still talk easily with their doctor, and felt listened to, while the doctor used the computer (87% & 75% respectively). More than half the patients felt the computer contributed to better treatment, although a quarter believed consultations were prolonged. About half the patients agreed that the doctor did not often explain the role of the computer. Given the national plans for increasing computerisation of health records (HealthConnect), this research suggests that more attention should be given to involving patients in e-health developments.
	A review of security of electronic health records Khin Than Win [ PDF ] Abstract The objective of this study is to answer the research question, ‘Are current information security technologies adequate for electronic health records (EHRs)?’ In order to achieve this, the following matters have been addressed in this article: (i) What is information security in the context of EHRs? (ii) Why is information security important for EHRs? and (iii) What are the current technologies for information security available to EHRs? It is concluded that current EHR security technologies are inadequate and urgently require improvement. Further study regarding information security of EHRs is indicated.