Electronic health records

Colin Beckingham | Oct 14, 2020

In Jeff Green's editorial of October 7 we get a sense of the frustration related to the Covid lockdowns. Frustration can come from the actions of our leaders - or simply from lack of fundamental scientific information and understanding - as we try to balance the options. Mr Green thinks there is no way out; the default, that of letting the disease run its course, appears to be unthinkable in the context of a dearth of hard information.

Fortunately there was a ray of light in an earlier edition of the Frontenac News (September 24, page 6) where the Rural Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Health Care Providers posted a little info piece on how they are making strides towards shared community electronic health records. The immediate benefit of such data collection and storage is to the individual patient, who is offered ready access to their medical information at various places in the area. The database backing up this effort has been carefully designed to collect information about the health of local residents as individuals. Therefore there is a side benefit to the community in the aggregation of this data, carefully anonymized, that can fill in some of the gaps in our understanding of the local epidemiology as it develops over time. And the more data we have, the more meaningful our interpretation can be.

It is in the interests of us all to not only ensure that our personal data is kept private, but also that the data is accurate so that when the numbers are aggregated they continue to make some sense. It is true that the sampling is poor since it is only collecting information on people that choose to go to their family doctor for help. Those who simply sweat it out and emerge cheerfully on the other side will not be counted. But some data is better than no data. This is a laudable effort by our local medical people - let's help them keep the data reliable and meaningful. Thereby the idea of EMR might spread more widely and become useful information that will have a positive effect on our collective community frustrations, and, perhaps, lead to a more informed leadership.

Colin Beckingham