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Latest from HIM-J
Since October’s ‘HIMAA Matters’, HIMJ has published five On-lineFirst articles. A brief summary is provided below.
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Review article Can electronic assessment tools improve the process of shared decision-making? A systematic review
Nyantara Wickramasekera, Sarah K Taylor, Elizabeth Lumley, Thomas Gray, Emma Wilson, Stephen Radley October 05, 2020 | OnlineFirst Shared decision-making is an important aspect of health care delivery, associated with improved health outcomes, patient satisfaction and reduced costs. This review, involving 17 articles and 4,004 participants, sought to assess the effectiveness of electronic assessment tools to improve the shared decision-making process. The researchers found that patient-provider communication, and the healthcare professional’s management of a patient’s condition, improves through the use of electronic questionnaires.
Editorial Patient privacy in the Covid-19 era: Data access, transparency, rights, regulation and the case for retaining the status quo Joan Henderson
November 12, 2020 | OnlineFirst A note from Dr Kerin Robinson, Editor in Chief:
This article is highly relevant to every HIM and all other health information professionals - health data analysts, health informaticians, clinical coding auditors, clinical documentation specialists and clinical coders. Anchored in evidence of Australian patients’ concerns about the privacy and security of their health information, this forceful discussion identifies governance challenges and serious risks to health data and information privacy across our health information landscape. These risks arise in and around the COVID-19 health data requirements, the My Health Record, and commercial systems marketed to general practice to support telehealth, appointment booking and pre-screening systems.
Henderson raises critical questions about patients’ informed consent to secondary use of their health information and the lack of governance and legislative restrictions around the use of these data for financial gain. Importantly, she calls for ‘plain language explanations, ethical oversight and mandatory inclusion of personnel [here, read HIMs] with knowledge and experience in the governance of health information’ (p.3) for the protection of all - patients, clinicians and commercial system owners.
