Dear HIFA colleagues,
In our message yesterday on this topic, we said "Many of the healthcare workers in our research are aware of this problem [privacy and confidentiality of patient information]".
For me this raises the question: How many health workers are *not* aware of this problem?" Some of these health workers (a) might never store or share patient information on their phone; some (b) might only share patient information orally; whereas some (c) might use the phone regularly to share written and/or image information. Do we have any sense what the numbers are?
It would be great to hear more from our primary researchers in Uganda. Can you describe a bit more about privacy and confidentiality issues that you found?
We have one anecdote whereby a health worker said: “I usually obtain consent from my patient before taking any images. I also strive to store and send the information via secure apps. For example, I avoid keeping sensitive data directly on my phone and when I have to, I use security codes to hide the information or utilise encrypted messaging apps to discuss information with colleagues” This, I suspect, is the exception rather than the rule. Also, whether or not a patient's confidentiality is compromised should not depend on the individual health worker - it should depend on clear guidance for all HWs from their employer/facility/supervisor. It seems that such guidance is currently missing? Again it would be great to hear from our Uganda research team, and from HIFA members in other countries.
I would like to suggest that privacy and confidentiality issues are the single most important reason why health workers should not use their personal phones for this purpose, unless this is clearly regulated with guidance, and where necessary with directivesS. There is a strong argument that health workers should seldom if ever use their personal phones to share identifiable patient information unless they have clear guidance.
What do you think?
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org