AMA submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into the My Health Record System

The AMA would like the My Health Record to succeed because the clinical benefits are considerable. It has the capacity to save lives, to promote a more efficient and more effective health system, and to provide the information our world class medical practitioners need to better care for their patients. But the AMA recognises that no system is perfect. And the system will need to continue to improve and evolve.

The shift to opt out arrangements imposes a big responsibility on government to educate citizens so they understand the My Health Record and the privacy controls citizens can use to determine which healthcare providers have access to their health data.  The AMA also calls on government to do more to improve the interoperability between the My Health Record and specialist clinical software.  The lag in specialist uptake of the My Health Record is unlikely to improve until these interoperability issues are addressed.