A National Framework must resolve this challenge. Online storage should be distributed so as to protect patients and consumers from data warehousing, but developed within a national framework. Standards developed under a national framework would ensure the vehicle is in place for transmission of minimum data for aggregation for government policy making. In each State and Territory. Storage should not be the responsibility of consumers.
Government has a central role in the development of distributed data storage.
Consumers and patients should hold devices which allow access to their medical records and extraction of data from these records. Compatible, robust and efficient systems are essential for collecting and reporting data for national analysis of safety and quality trends. Patients and consumers should have complete control of data irrespective of what mechanisms are adopted. All health sectors, both private and public should supply data to the EHR s in accordance with the minimum data. 6 Draper in Health Informatics, Chapter 5, page 196.