Research On The Application Of EMR And The Privacy Protection Of Patient

Since1980s, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has been widely applied and popularized in many medical institutions in the world. Compared with paper medical record, the electronic one is easy to use, efficient in writing, complete in information, large in storage, rapid in information transmission, easy for reference and management.However, the efficiency and convenience of the EMR may raise the risks of information insecurity, proved by frequent disclosure of medical data in recent years. If the private medical record is disclosed or used improperly, patients could no longer trust their doctors, which would harm the relation between patients and doctors and weaken therapeutic effect. Besides, patients may suffer from injustices or discrimination in their work, social activities and marriage. As a result, it is in urgent need to enact complete laws and regulation for the storage, transmission, publication of EMR.The first part of this paper is an introduction of the basic concepts of medical record and its characteristics, the definition of EMR and its development in China. After that is an analysis with case study of the new threats to patient’s privacy in the applications of EMR, due to large scale of processing, online operation and "function creep". In this way, this paper points out the importance and urgency to protect the patients’ privacy.The second part is a legal analysis of the conflicts between the application of EMR and laws to protect patients’ privacy. Based on the current laws and regulation, taken the features of EMR in to account and borrowing ideas from overseas related legislation, this paper probes into the three conflicts between patients’ privacy and doctors’investigatory right, patients’ right to keep medical record and hospital’s regulatory power, patients’ privacy and the primary purpose of medical records, and finally considers the balance of interest between each party.The third part is a suggestion to perfect China’s EMR system. we can realize a positive development of EMR by completing a privacy-protecting system which suggests to notify the patients in advance to get the approval of them, clarifying the provisions about when EMR could be used, revealed or exempt, completing the laws and regulations about medical information safety and forming a social decentralized mechanism for privacy-viloation.