The Australian government has published guidelines on the third-party use of data from its contentious My Health Record, with the Secondary Use of Data Governance Board charged with making many of the decisions on who and why data can be used, on a case-by-case basis.
My Health Record is Australia's electronic health records system, given the green light in August 2017 from the Council of Australian Governments Health Council (COAG) to begin automatically signing up Australians[1].
By 2018, all Australians will have a My Health Record, and by 2022, all healthcare providers will be able to contribute to and use health information stored in My Health Record on behalf of their patients. They will also be able to communicate with other healthcare providers on the clinical status of joint patients via the digital platform.
Australians will be able to opt out of a My Health Record if they choose, and they similarly can opt out of having their data available for secondary use.
Where a health record has been cancelled, the data also becomes unavailable for secondary use.
The Framework to guide the secondary use of My Health Record system data [PDF][2], released on Friday, aims to define how data contained within the system can be used for research and public health purposes, while preserving privacy and security of data in the system.
33 items comprise the framework, with many requiring the Secondary Use of Data Governance Board to make the final decision on whether a third party can use the data.
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The board will comprise representatives from the