An explicit distinction between shared electronic health records and those at the point of care is required when referring to electronic health records. The former raises particular privacy issues discussed in this paper in relation to HealthConnect and the Draft Australian National Health Privacy Code. In addition to a number of revisions to the code, the analysis recommends that related legislation such as archival and freedom of information law should be reconciled as much as possible within the code, so that a long-term view of the uses, retention and preservation of the longitudinal electronic health record is balanced with privacy, confidentiality and public interest.
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