Amsterdam Law Forum (Aug 2009)
Electronic Health Record: Afraid of the Unknown
Abstract
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The Dutch government is about to introduce an obligatory national electronic health record, <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">het</em> <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Electronisch Patiëntendossier </em>(EHR). The purpose of the EHR is to replace the widespread used paper based records, and to exchange medical information quickly and easily nationwide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three issues concerning privacy: autonomy, confidentiality and security, are the same issues that have existed with previous forms of medical records. In this article the advantages of the EHR will be summarized, being the decreased chance of making treatment errors, the improvement of medical knowledge, and the fact that the EHR can actively help in medical decision-making. The EHR is a welcome enhancement and will be a new instrument in the treatment of patients.<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong></span></p>
