Digitising health records: New law provides up to $100M in penalties for leaking confidential info

Laying the foundation for the eventual implementation of electronic health records in Guyana, the Data Protection Bill is set to be presented in the National Assembly soon.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday, during the launch of the newest Family Health Manual, shared that this data confidentiality Bill is one of several pieces of legislation that the Health Ministry is currently working on creating and implementing to enhance healthcare delivery across the country.
“We have just completed work on legislation dealing with data confidentiality. This will be laid in Parliament very shortly because the Ministry is moving to introduce electronic health records and if [we’re] going to do this then people’s information must be kept confidential,” Dr Anthony said.

The Data Protection Bill intends on protecting the privacy of individuals and regulating the collection, keeping, processing, use and dissemination or personal data.
The Minister disclosed that this Bill, once it comes into operation, will have stiff fines starting from $20 million and going up to $100 million if persons are found in breach of data confidentiality.
The electronic health records system, upon which the data protection legislation lays the foundation, aims to assign each patient with a unique identifier so that their records can be easily accessed within healthcare facilities across the country.
Minister Anthony added that in about a month, the Ministry will also be putting out a call for proposals from various vendors to develop this system.
Meanwhile, he noted that the Cabinet is also in the process of passing another piece of legislation dealing with radiation, a first of its kind for the country.
“We have different types of equipment that we use in the medical setting and we need to regulate radiation. This [Bill] is going to pass soon,” Anthony said.
Additionally, the Health Ministry is looking to install new legislation dealing with public health.
“We have old public health ordinances that are totally outdated. So, we are writing new legislation to deal with public health,” Dr Anthony said. “It’s going to be an omnibus legislation meaning that it will cover every aspect of public health. It will affect various sectors and we’ve been working with those sectors.”
He added that as of now, there are nine chapters in the draft Bill. In July, the Health Ministry will be collaborating with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to conclude this piece of legislation.

Guidelines
In addition to building out the public health infrastructure in the country, the Health Ministry is also looking to update its guidelines.
Last year, the Ministry’s Chronic Diseases Unit in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) launched its first HEARTS technical package to better assist healthcare professionals with the prevention and early detection of cardiovascular diseases within primary healthcare.
Thus far, this programme is being facilitated in 100 health centres and deals with using more effective medication and encouraging patients to modify their behaviour.
Plans to expand this programme and introduce it in more health centres is currently underway.
Next month, the Ministry also intends on launching new guidelines to better care for patients with diabetes.
“We’ve just concluded those guidelines. They’ve gone through a review with a number of persons within the Ministry,” Anthony said.
“We are pivoting from using glucometers to now using HbA1c to check people’s blood sugar. We feel that is more accurate,” he added.