British Columbia became the first province in Canada to create a legislative framework with specific provisions to address access and protection of electronic health information.
The e-Health Personal Health and Information Access and Protection of Privacy Act could eventually create paperless medical offices, allowing physicians to store information about patients on their computers as opposed to the banks of individual file folders in most offices, Abbott said.
"I'm pretty confident we got it right here," he said. "I'm very pleased with the balance with the legitimate access to personal information that a physician may require and the protection of the sanctity of those records that is so important to the patient."
The e-Health law gives medical researchers access to the electronic health database but ensures privacy, Abbott said.
Individuals can block access to the their own information in health data banks, except in cases where the person is incapacitated in an emergency or with the individual's consent.
Abbott said the new law prohibits disclosing information from electronic health databases for market research. The government will create a committee that evaluates requests for data for health research or planning purposes.
Maximum fines for violating the act have been will be $200,000.
The Opposition New Democrats said they want patient privacy ensured. They also said the act suffers from credibility issues.
Opposition health critic Adrian Dix wondered whether the bidding process for a $108 million contract for the software to store electronic medical records was tainted by alleged conflict of interest by a former top bureaucrat.
"The electronic medical records process is mired, unfortunately, in problems with the bidding process and problems with conflict of interest," he said. "We're talking about access to personal medical records and the credibility of that process is put in jeopardy."
The Health Ministry received a letter of concern about the bid process from an unnamed company whose bid for the electronic medical records contract was rejected.
And Dr. Tom Elliott, of Vancouver, went public with his concerns, saying his electronic records software met more than 95 per cent of the bid guidelines but didn't make the shortlist.
Other concerns involved the relationship between Ron Danderfer, a former assistant deputy minister of health, and Dr. Jonathan Burns, a Fraser Valley emergency room doctor and health contractor who developed and promoted a widely used health records device.
Danderfer and Burns were members of a steering committee overseeing the $108 million contract, aimed at getting the province's doctors on common software for medical records.
Only six companies were chosen to be involved and last year Burns listed one of the winning companies as a partner on his website.
The company, Wolf Medical, denied there had ever been a financial link between the two.
Abbott has said a government review found Danderfer was not involved in the selection or evaluation process for the health records project.
An internal government letter addressed to the Health Ministry from the Labour Ministry said last year the bid process was not influenced by Danderfer and Burns.
"While news media reports appear to link the Burns/Danderfer matter with the electronic medical record procurement, we can confirm that neither of these individuals were involved in evaluating proponent proposals or proponent software demonstrations and testing at any stage of the evaluation process," said the Nov. 7 letter from Richard Poutney, assistant deputy labour minister.
"We have not received any information that would link this matter to the electronic medical record procurement," it said.
In December, RCMP confirmed an investigation involving Danderfer while he was employed at the Health Ministry. The Mounties also asked the government to withhold results of an internal audit until their probe is complete.
Danderfer was placed on mandatory leave last July and retired last October after 35 years of service with the B.C. government.
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Quelle/Source: The Canadian Press, 10.04.2008
