Lost in Translation: Transforming healthcare information for the digital and cloud domains

Abstract

In economically and technologically advanced countries, healthcare information is rapidly being moved from the analogue to the digital domain. While it is widely assumed that the basic nature of the information remains basically unchanged in the transformation, this chapter makes the argument that the translation inevitably entails fundamental changes to the very nature of the stored information. In the leap from paper to electronic records, entire new classes of potential uses and users are brought into being, together with attendant new issues relating to privacy, control and right of access to such information. The experience of several jurisdictions is examined. The theme of this article is a general inquiry into the kind of challenges and pitfalls which institutional data owners, policy planners and IT database system designers need to have in mind in preparing and designing for the holding of healthcare information in the digital domain. The likely implications of the cloud for electronic medical records databases is examined.