However, communicating over the Internet the status or progression of a patient's pain, injury, or disease status can be very helpful with their confidentiality protected as previously described. Linking the best specialists for differential diagnosis and ongoing treatment is currently a necessity. At the very least, the patient would improve communication with the health care professional who usually has limited time to discuss their concerns. The risks of violating confidentiality are subject to the same liability anyone has with other traditional forms of communication who abuses that privilege. Stanford University is curently conducting research on the Internet with hundreds of patients transmitting medical information about their status daily without any complaints or problems.
Progress is inevitable.
While this possition is considered rather bold in NZ there is a plan to trial client ownership of clinical records. A challenge to the institutional retention of consumer records. Jim Burdett September 1999 I want to start by differentiating between two aspects of records - those that are simple fact and those that call for an exercise of judgment. Information such as dates, places, medications and such could be described as bureaucratic information and, as such, may be quite properly be held by the bureaucracy, the institution. The real stuff is that which describes experiences, symptoms descriptions of behaviour, social circumstances, diagnosis - the reality of the client s life, in other words, my history, me.