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The following article was first published in the November 1971 issue
of the NLMA newsletter.
The Division of Community
Medicine held a Medical Records Linkage Seminar on September 28 and
29, 1971, at the Holiday Inn, St. John's, organized by Dr. Boyd Suttie, Associate Professor of Health Care Delivery. The objectives
of the seminar were to explore the problems and potential for
introduction of such a system in Newfoundland, and to produce a
blueprint for action.
Speakers at the seminar included
Professor E.D. Acheson, Dean of Medicine, Southampton University,
England, and Dr. Howard Newcombe, Chalk River, Ontario. Professor
Acheson was the driving force behind the Oxford Record Linkage
Study, and Dr. Newcombe is, of course, well known internationally as
a Canadian authority on the subject. About 50 people attended by
invitation.
Recommendations arising from the
seminar will be published in about three months, but the Provincial
government will be advised that legislation is necessary to insure
confidentiality of such records. The report will recommend that the
Province establish a medical records linkage system as soon as
possible, starting by linking hospital admission and discharge
records with birth and death records. Because the Provincial
Medicare Plan already has provided an identifying number of every
person in the Province, and because some hospitals have already
computerized their hospital records, the cost of implementing such a
records linking system will not be excessive. It is also recommended
that there be a family grouping of records giving the medical
records of the members of the family a linkage which could be very
helpfu1 in the detection and prevention of illness.
Dr. Suttie summed up the
foregoing report of the seminar, one of whose recommendations was
that a committee or task force should be set up to implement the
introduction of linkage. This committee should include
representatives of the University School of Medicine, the
Newfoundland Medical Association, the Provincial government and the
College of Family Physicians.
It is hoped to publish a copy of
the final report in a later edition of Newsletter.
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