The Tragedy of the Health Information Commons
Healthcare in Canada
The Tragedy of the Health Information Commons: Health information managed by all is managed by none
Modernising stewardship of primary care medical records would improve our struggling Canadian healthcare system. These valuable (and expensive) medical records are duplicated and fragmented in holdings managed by physicians using one of seventy(!) commercial off the shelf (COTS) Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. Lack of information integration and application standardisation creates administrative burden. This will only get worse as diagnostic and treatment authority is extended to other professions. Improved data interoperability among healthcare systems “digitises the goat paths.” It doesn’t integrate information holdings or workflow.
We need to update roles and responsibilities for health information to properly apply technology. Physician custodianship of primary care medical records hasn’t changed since the early1800s. It’s time for change.
Transfer custodianship of medical records from doctors to a provincial / territorial agency, and mandate use of a standard COTS EMR.
Store records in a central information repository to support team-based care
Federal government licenses one national standard COTS EMR.
This concept isn’t new. It’s the same information management and technology model used in acute care.
Every Canadian would have one primary care medical record, and they would authorise use. Practitioners would use a standard EMR for timely, role-based access to comprehensive and accurate patient information. Canada could train and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) at scale. Doctors would do medicine, not information management.
More information on stewardship of healthcare information and improving the healthcare system in British Columbia can be found here.
greg steer
Enterprise Coach and Mentor