Another stab at EMR/EHR, another potential bleed out

This time we hear that the attempt that failed once before gets a second chance but it's the same old story. The one difference is this time, they're offering their own employees as the test subjects! 

But according to Dossia's chief technology officer, the group — which consists of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Intel Corp., AT&T Inc. and five other large companies — is back up off the mat and plans to make the Web-based health records system broadly available to employees of its founding members later this year.

And my comfort is increased immensely when I hear the providers of this service refer to it as "a virtual shoebox that you can save all your medical records in and carry it around with you". I think it was probably 35 or 40 years ago that I felt comfortable with saving things of value to me, like baseball cards and marbles, in a shoebox. As an adult with children of my own now, I can guarantee you, the LAST PLACE I'd want my, or their, medical records is in a shoebox, virtual or other.

Every time this issue comes up, I keep hoping to hear greater assurances of how the information is going to be protected, but more often than not, instead, you hear the stories of how it's exposed to loss through improper procedures for handling.

Until potential service providers are willing to contemplate the concerns of meeting the privacy laws of all of the states in which their clients reside, develop a sound security protocol, avoid commingling of information in common repositories, and show a path forward for conversion and migration to ensure persistent access to information equivalent to the lifespan of clients, I won't be convinced that this is a viable option.

How about you? Are you willing to risk your medical history, or that of your parents, your siblings, your children to this bolted together "best option we can come up with"? I don't personally feel this is a place to make a leap of faith and hope for the best.