Await release of this book
E-HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
AND MEDICAL DATA THEFT
To be released internationally
Author: P.S.Remesh Chandran
From this book:
* In the present
circumstances, without internet there is no e-health. When internet fails,
e-health fails. Even intra-institutional communications would come to a stop,
nothing to say about inter-national communications and counseling. So, e-health
is something which is totally dependent on and at the mercy of internet.
Conventional health record storage and health care administering systems do not
have this disadvantage or handicap. They have functioned smoothly or at least
uninterruptedly, even during terrible war periods. Today, in times of
international political and geographical turmoil like wars, it would be the
digital communication systems of countries which would be the first attacked, destructed
or hacked into. Each country has whole armies of experts for doing this.
* Storing patient data electronically in the cyber
space and prescribing by online is the concept of e-health. Recruiting,
training and retaining technically advanced employees, purchasing and
maintaining advanced equipment and setting up and maintaining a nation-wide
system with all primary health care centres connected and updated need a huge
budget of course, which only a few countries in this world can afford.
Countries which cannot guarantee 24 hours’ uninterrupted power supply year-round
and countries with no electricity at all needn’t even think about it.
* Privacy of patient records and confidentiality
of data has always been a concern while implementing e-health projects for
which none has come up with a satisfactory solution till date. Once data leaves
an archive and takes its flight along the online route, no one has been able to
guarantee its privacy and confidentiality. That is why e-health is not enjoying
wide acceptance and many orthodox and wise countries are staying away from this
development. A responsible e-health manager ensures the flow of insecure
diagnostic information and secure patient information.
* E-Health is not a substitute for health care but only a digital system for recording, storing and retrieving medical data and monitoring health care of citizens. A virtual wound can be treated remotely and digitally but what about a physical bleeding wound? Perhaps a time may come when wounds could be laser-cauterized remotely but not anytime in the near future.
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