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Health informatics—Canadian experience
76
BOOK
Realization
of Data Protection
REVIEWS
in Health Information
Griesser, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, Pp. xvi + 214. Price: US$24-00.
Systems, ed. by G.
The Netherlands,
1977.
In spite of the continued emphasis on the extreme sanctity of confidential medical information, especially by medical defence organisations, medical practitioners have developed something akin to immune tolerance to the everyday breaches of that confidentiality. Hospital case records in the NHS are legally ‘owned’ by the appropriate government minister for the UK province and are read and processed by all manner of clerical staff. Worse than that, hospital activity analysis identifies patients by name before tabulating their diagnoses and operations for national processing, so what remains of real secrecy? When one remembers that a British citizen’s National Insurance and Income Tax numbers have been identical for years, the possibility of easy cross-reference between state departments is revealed. 1984 approaches and does anyone care? It is apparent from this little book that some people do care and the various chapters describe in detail the efforts and experiences of the different authors in tackling the problem of protecting computerised data from manipulation, loss and thett, as well as from simple error. It is not really a book for the general reader, but anyone with an interest in computerised general information systems will find its great detail and wide scope very interesting. The English style is nice, in spite of most of the authors coming from Continental Europe, which is a tribute to someone’s linguistic abilities. However, presbyopic readers will need strong lenses to clarify the small print. J. H. MITCHELL
Health Informatics-Canadian Experience, by J. F. Brandejs, IFIP Medical Publishing Co., Informatics Monograph Series, Volume 2, North-Holland Amsterdam, The Netherlands and American Elsevier Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1976. Pp. xiv + 239. Price: US$24*50.
The publishers’ blurb about this book states that ‘for practising physicians, physicians in teaching institutions, health economists and systems scientists, the analysis provides a clear and comprehensive guide to the multidimensional structure of health informatics and applications’. This is too grandiose a claim for what is, in fact, a short monograph which is very sensible and succinct in some parts and awfully dull in others. Admittedly I found the typeface and irregular spacing of the words (computer typesetting?) very irritating and the style somewhat pedantic, but I am sure that ‘practising physicians’, if they can be bothered to read through
77
BOOKREVIEWS
from beginning to end, will be impressed above all by the obsessive comprehensiveness of the glossary of definitions at the end. They can, for example, learn what is meant by social class, behaviour therapy, terminal care and primary physician. The author also seems to feel compelled to keep trying to reduce every proposition and consideration to a list, which again may be tidily comprehensive but is exhausting for the reader. So this is a disappointing book when one thinks of Dr Payne’s little masterpiece on medical automation published over a decade ago. J. H. MITCHELL
BOOK
Realization
of Data Protection
REVIEWS
in Health Information
Griesser, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, Pp. xvi + 214. Price: US$24-00.
Systems, ed. by G.
The Netherlands,
1977.
In spite of the continued emphasis on the extreme sanctity of confidential medical information, especially by medical defence organisations, medical practitioners have developed something akin to immune tolerance to the everyday breaches of that confidentiality. Hospital case records in the NHS are legally ‘owned’ by the appropriate government minister for the UK province and are read and processed by all manner of clerical staff. Worse than that, hospital activity analysis identifies patients by name before tabulating their diagnoses and operations for national processing, so what remains of real secrecy? When one remembers that a British citizen’s National Insurance and Income Tax numbers have been identical for years, the possibility of easy cross-reference between state departments is revealed. 1984 approaches and does anyone care? It is apparent from this little book that some people do care and the various chapters describe in detail the efforts and experiences of the different authors in tackling the problem of protecting computerised data from manipulation, loss and thett, as well as from simple error. It is not really a book for the general reader, but anyone with an interest in computerised general information systems will find its great detail and wide scope very interesting. The English style is nice, in spite of most of the authors coming from Continental Europe, which is a tribute to someone’s linguistic abilities. However, presbyopic readers will need strong lenses to clarify the small print. J. H. MITCHELL
Health Informatics-Canadian Experience, by J. F. Brandejs, IFIP Medical Publishing Co., Informatics Monograph Series, Volume 2, North-Holland Amsterdam, The Netherlands and American Elsevier Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1976. Pp. xiv + 239. Price: US$24*50.
The publishers’ blurb about this book states that ‘for practising physicians, physicians in teaching institutions, health economists and systems scientists, the analysis provides a clear and comprehensive guide to the multidimensional structure of health informatics and applications’. This is too grandiose a claim for what is, in fact, a short monograph which is very sensible and succinct in some parts and awfully dull in others. Admittedly I found the typeface and irregular spacing of the words (computer typesetting?) very irritating and the style somewhat pedantic, but I am sure that ‘practising physicians’, if they can be bothered to read through
77
BOOKREVIEWS
from beginning to end, will be impressed above all by the obsessive comprehensiveness of the glossary of definitions at the end. They can, for example, learn what is meant by social class, behaviour therapy, terminal care and primary physician. The author also seems to feel compelled to keep trying to reduce every proposition and consideration to a list, which again may be tidily comprehensive but is exhausting for the reader. So this is a disappointing book when one thinks of Dr Payne’s little masterpiece on medical automation published over a decade ago. J. H. MITCHELL