Re: Warning of major NHS IT overspend

[Brian Beesley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

On Monday 01 November 2004 11:19, Owen Lewis wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dave Howe
> > Sent: 01 November 2004 10:55
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: Warning of major NHS IT overspend
> >
> > Brian Beesley wrote:
> > > Why does everything have to be stored centrally?
> >
> > It would appear that that is not for anything more operational than the
> > fact that the government wants it that way - as has already been pointed
> > out, these aren't the patients records, but records about the patient;
> > the system appears to wish to establish the fact that these aren't the
> > gp's records, but records held at the gp... by removing them and putting
> > them in one central and highly data-minable location.
>
> Mineable and mindable, both?

As in, there's only one database to back up. But what a disaster when the 
central database gets wiped out by accidental fire / terrorist attack / rogue 
staff member (delete as appropriate to your level of paranoia). There's 
probably more risk of incidents if the database is dispersed but the number 
of people affected would be smaller. i.e. dispersing the database is a form 
of insurance against a collapse of the whole national system.
>
> And where the NHS consumes such a large part of the nation's wealth, is
> data-mining such a bad idea? Leaving such a wealth of information untapped
> might seem to verge on the irresponsible.

It's not _information_, it's at best intelligence, except when applied in 
respect of the individual data subject. And only then if proper procedures 
are applied.

What is the value of data mining to the individual data subject?

If you want to do statistical analysis then the sensible thing to do would be 
to work with properly anonymised extracts. This could easily be done without 
pooling the medical records data centrally.

A central database does, however, present a convenient resource for "data 
mining" done by marketeers (and worse), and an obvious target for crackers 
determined to subvert the database, perhaps with terrorist intent.

Brian Beesley