There is no disputing the medical value of the collated medical information that will be contained in a My Health Record. It can and will save lives. However, when collating and storing deeply personal medical data for long periods it is critical to understand and guard against the potential misuses.

It is worth bearing in mind that all of the data contained in a My Health Record already exists. It is just spread around between the individual records kept by GPs’, treating specialists, hospitals, pharmacists, the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. What the My Health Record does is pool all this data together in the one centralised electronic location.

Ready access to all our medical data with one click of a mouse or tap on a phone will be valuable to treating medical practitioners, especially in an emergency. However, ready access to all our medical data makes an attractive target for others with whom we might be less willing to share. My concern is that there are inadequate measures in place to protect our data from coercive sharing.

The My Health website proclaims “You control who accesses the information in your My Health Record”. Unfortunately, this is not the whole truth. It is easy to foresee the day where we may be coerced into sharing. Many employers have an interest in the physical and mental health of their employees. With airline pilots, train drivers and doctors performing surgery there is arguably good cause for an employer to be aware of some past or current medical issues the employee may have. Pilots are currently subject to regular medical examinations, but no-one examines all the pilot’s lifetime medical records because they are too hard to obtain.

With My Health Record, all the employer needs to ask/demand is that the employee hand over the login and the password. The employer will justify the intrusion into the employee’s privacy by pointing to the need to protect the public at large from medically based erratic work performance by a pilot or surgeon.