E-Consent Design and Implementation Issues for Health Information Managers

This article outlines and discusses a number of e-consent issues concerning an individual's access to information held in electronic health records. Through research conducted with general practices and health consumers, the following issues have been identified: limitation of health professionals' access to records; the ability of the individuals to limit access to their records and to indicate the circumstances within which access would be permitted; the degree of the health professional's awareness of restricted or total access to a patient's record; audit trails through which an individual can track the path of a record; and the individual's nomination of an agent authorised to control access to their record. These issues affect system developments and Health Information Managers, and key challenges to Health Information Managers in the electronic health record environment are also highlighted.