EOI – EMR Data Governance Advisory Committee
The NLMA is looking for two representatives for the EMR Data Governance Advisory Committee.
The EMR Data Governance Advisory Committee advises the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Management Committee on matters related to the collection, use, destruction, and disclosure of EMR personal health information and data. A specific responsibility of the Advisory Committee is making recommendations for secondary uses of EMR data.
Commitment is a two-year term, which may be renewed.
Please submit your expression of interest by end of day March 17, 2025.
Dr. Laura Jewell, who recently stepped down from the committee after five years, has prepared a description of the committee and its work. You can read about her experience below.
I joined the Data Governance Advisory Committee (DGAC) in July of 2020. DGAC is a subcommittee of the EMR Management Committee. Its role is to advise the Management Committee on the collection, use and disclosure of EMR data for secondary purposes. DGAC has 50 per cent representation of physicians and 50 per cent representation from NL Health Services and Government.
DGAC meets irregularly, four to six times a year, usually on Wednesdays at 4:30. The two big pieces of work the committee has undertaken is a list of the data elements that will be disclosed from EMRs to the provincial data warehouse for secondary use, and a subset of that to HEALTHeNL. The committee has also advised the EMR Management Committee on the Information Management Framework, the guiding policy eDOCSNL for the uses and disclosures of EMR data.
Over the years I’ve seen my role as a physician on the committee be one of balancing a number of competing priorities: improving access to information for patient care/quality improvement/research purposes, maintaining patient confidentiality and protecting physician autonomy. There are times when the discussion at DGAC meetings becomes entangled in the nitty gritty of the details of a request for access to information for secondary use, but ultimately the role of the committee is not to review the strengths and weaknesses of an academic or government proposal or project, but from a high level view determine whether the requests are reasonable given the three aforementioned priorities.
It has been really interesting to be part of this group. It can be a steep learning curve but don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions, seek clarification (likely someone else will have the same question as you!) and advocate for the thoughtful governance of health data in this province.
-Laura Jewell, BSc, MHA, MD, CCFP