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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default My Health Record Opt Out

    If you have privacy concerns with the Governments new My Health Record online database you can opt out via this link https://www.myhealthrecord.gov.au/fo...-health-record

    You'll just need to enter your medicare number as well as some form of ID, e.g. drivers licence.

    Cheers

  2. #2
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    Default

    After many years dealing with health records as a software programmer, please please opt out not just for yourselves but get your whole family to opt oit. I do not want my information associated with the extreme incompetence going on behind the scenes.

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    I don't have much faith either but I reckon in my case its better to have something as opposed to what I'm doing now.
    With a half complex dozen conditions on the go I don't feel capable of remembering what I did when and where. I used to write it all down but I'm sick and tired of updating and carrying around my medical history and the dozens of blood tests and scans that I undergo each year to show to the next specialist. Typically each doc photocopied or copied ( more recently I carried it around on a USB stick) and kept it on their records but then I would forget to being it with me or my conditions would change and because the conditions are interlinked the docs wouldn't have the latest record and all confusion reigned, wrong stuff was prescribed etc. I've checked through the online history and while there are a couple of omissions there are no false inputs and I picked up a lot of mistakes in my own records. What this showed me is a centralised system was much better than I was at being able to maintain my own record. No doubt they will stuff it up somewhere along the line but so far its saving me a lot of headaches.

  4. #4
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    There's also a potentially beneficial herd effect similar to immunisation. With a centralised system the data can be de-personalised and serious epidemiological studies performed. This would then enable health authorities to pick health issues up far quicker than is currently possible and take appropriate measures. Once again there will inevitably be stuff ups but (just like motor vehicle or internet use) there should be more benefits than stuff ups. I'm quite happy for those who don't want to be in it to opt out but for those that are unsure I'd recommend staying in.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    With a centralised system the data can be de-personalised ...
    Or maybe not???
    I don't trust our Government to keep MY data secure and I certainly don't trust that they (or a third party that donates large sums of money to their political party) will only use the data for MY best interests.
    Surely history has taught us that.
    Cheers.

    Vernon.
    __________________________________________________
    Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.

  6. #6
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    I didn't write "will" I wrote "can".

    Like I said - if you don't feel comfortable about it I'm not objecting.

    The depersonalised medical records of most people are already being collected and collated through hospital and provider Medicare item numbers. Certain diseases are notifiable by law and some medical data takes years to build up before it is of any use.
    Overall the national health data is thin, gappy, and takes considerably longer to collect and at a greater expense to the taxpayer than My health record.
    If enough people sign up for my health record it will make this all much cheaper and quicker and will benefit future generations.
    Its kind of a bit like vaccination.
    Most people don't understand that Epidemiologists are not interested in an individual's data as it has no meaning

    We all laugh at and have a go at the medical profession for a variety of reasons but despite the appalling lifestyles of much of the population you can't argue with the fact that average life expectancy has increased substantially and quality of life under medical conditions has improved due to medical advances and public health initiatives. Instead of seeing the my health record as a data base that might go wrong it may be better to think of it as valuable medical data bank that can be used to do some good.

    Glass half full versus glass half empty view of life perhaps?

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    Its kind of a bit like vaccination.
    That is a long bow to draw. It (My Health Record) has dubious benefit to community as a whole and while it does appear to have benefits to the individual, I (personally) think that the risks far outweigh those benefits.

    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    Glass half full versus glass half empty view of life perhaps?
    ... or perhaps it's "ignorance (of what is actually happening with your data) is bliss"
    I am truly optimistic that the Government will royally screw this up, sooner or later, and I won't be part of it.
    Cheers.

    Vernon.
    __________________________________________________
    Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.

  8. #8
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vernonv View Post
    That is a long bow to draw. It (My Health Record) has dubious benefit to community as a whole and while it does appear to have benefits to the individual, I (personally) think that the risks far outweigh those benefits.
    Not my opinion but those of 3 of my relatives who are all epidemiologists, and they say that over the long term comprehensive national health record data base would be as invaluable to public health as vaccinations. This is too complex for the average punter to understand which is why you don't hear about it from the govt so benefits are touted all in terms of the individual. An individuals record is not worth anything to an epidemiologist which is why I have no problems some people opting out for whatever reason they think as long as most people stay in the system.

    Anyone that uses medicare is already a part of an expensive, ineffective and slow, national health data base system and we're paying for it through our taxes.

  9. #9
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    I opted out ages ago. I can not see why I need my health records stashed away in a central database. While it may help public health, at the end of the day we are all going to die and for 99.99999% of us our lives are insignificant and will be for nought anyway, in a hundred years no one will know who you were unless you do something legendary, outside the immediate family most people would not be able to name too many people that died fifty plus years ago, they are forgotten. No point in vegetating away in an old person's home being kept alive on pills, or getting a terminal illness. When that time comes I would rather be dead.

    If that sounds dark, well it is reality.
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  10. #10
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    Default

    I'd be in it if I could have my own password to it. And not every tom dick and harry.
    Didnt one of the banks have 3million accounts hacked recently?

    in my opinion if one is generally healthy then there is no reason to be on it.

  11. #11
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    I think you can set a password to your own record, have a read here https://www.myhealthrecord.gov.au/fo...urity-controls

    Even still, it's not something I wish to be a part of and I have opted out, in some cases it might be beneficial, as BobL mentioned earlier, but it's not for me.

  12. #12
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by .RC. View Post
    I opted out ages ago. I can not see why I need my health records stashed away in a central database. While it may help public health, at the end of the day we are all going to die and for 99.99999% of us our lives are insignificant and will be for nought anyway, in a hundred years no one will know who you were unless you do something legendary . . . .
    My 58 year old BIL was one day feeling fine and a then started feeling off and a month later was diagnosed with multiple cancers and given 6 months to live. He could have crawled into a hole, instead he offered his body up for experimental treatment and at his own cost he flew to Melbourne and participated in 3 rounds of experimental treatment. He lived for 15 months so was able to see his first grandchild and managed to walk (well, wheelchair) his daughter down the aisle. Never smoked, drank very little, careful about what he ate, and did more than enough exercise.

    [QUOTE}. . . . outside the immediate family most people would not be able to name too many people that died fifty plus years ago, they are forgotten. No point in vegetating away in an old person's home being kept alive on pills, or getting a terminal illness. When that time comes I would rather be dead. If that sounds dark, well it is reality.[/QUOTE]

    That's part of My Health Record agenda, to give your kids and grandkids the chance to live a better old age. It is too late for most of us but as we are the ones who contributed to fouling up the planet we can at least contribute our data to a better future for them.

  13. #13
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    There are three big issues that I see with this, and I spent nearly three years working directly with this.

    1 all the data is actually stored as scanned PDFs and is not actually searchable by doctors, so to know your history they have to manually read everything, so the human error portion of things is still there. this also means the data is useless as aggregated research data.

    2. Access is being granted to private organisations including private health funds, expect policies to either become more expensive on a per individual basis because of your health records.

    3. Once opted in there is no provision for having your records deleted, absolutely no way to opt out so if it goes south you can't extract anything.

    4. With the information stored in these records (remember they are scanned pages so all your contact details are here too as well as emergency contact details) someone can just have your identity instantly.

    5. To my knowledge except for China there is no electronic health record that has NOT been hacked. Just look at Singapore and the UK.

    Honestly I'm not normally a tinfoil hat crackpot but this record is an absolute farm.

  14. #14
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    Whilst I think its a great idea, I find it difficult to believe that anybody anywhere is going to have the resources to gather and keyin all of the data into any central database in a format that would allow for relevant queries to be conducted either for a genuine personal medical emergency or for research purposes.

    Surely the resources required to summarise/reformat / keywording the medical data for 20Million+ people will be humungous. Our local GPs say they have no access to it yet.

    How would it be done and how many years backlog of data would the data be keyed in ? I guess it would be simple enough to just dump a heap of scanned pdf files onto some computers somewhere but that would be very difficult to run queries on.

  15. #15
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    Just imagine the mistakes that will happen.

    Doctor: Hello Chris Jones, says here in My Health Records that you are due for a mammogram.

    Chris Jones: But I am a man.

    Doctor: It clearly says here on the database you are a woman. Now we are the experts here not you.
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

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