During Heritage Week celebrations, we honoured those whose courage, sacrifice and service helped shape our nation. The occasion also invited us to recognise people whose everyday contributions protect lives and strengthen communities. Among them are health information management practitioners, commonly known as medical records staff, who safeguard the information essential to safe, timely and effective health care.

Their contribution takes centre stage during Health Records Week, October 25-30, under the theme, ‘Building resilience through health information management; strengthening data systems and healthcare delivery’. The theme connects their often unseen work to a pressing national priority: ensuring that health services remain dependable through emergencies, natural disasters, cyber threats and the transition to digital care.

Many roles, one mission

Behind every reliable patient record is a team with distinct but interconnected responsibilities. Registration clerks establish patient identity; records officers organise, retrieve and preserve files; technicians maintain paper and electronic systems; and coders classify diagnoses and procedures. Statisticians and analysts transform patient encounters into evidence, while medico-legal officers, quality officers, managers and educators support confidentiality, accuracy and responsible information use. Together, these professionals ensure that the right information reaches the right person when it is needed.

Clinicians rely on accurate records of allergies, diagnoses, medicines, test results and procedures. Administrators need dependable data to allocate staff, beds, equipment and supplies. Public health authorities require timely statistics to monitor outbreaks and plan interventions. Health information is therefore not peripheral paperwork; it is essential infrastructure at the centre of care.

Resilience begins with information

The importance of this work becomes especially clear after disasters. Damaged buildings, interrupted electricity, displaced services and waterlogged files can disrupt access to vital patient information. Resilient records systems help health teams maintain continuity and restore services.

The restoration work undertaken by Southern Regional Health Authority health records teams at Black River Hospital and health centres following Hurricane Melissa reflects this responsibility. Rebuilding storage, recovering records and restoring workflows are not merely administrative tasks. They help preserve institutional memory and reconnect patients with the information needed for their care.

Jamaica’s transition to electronic health records also demonstrates the value of stronger information systems. Recent media reports on the May Pen Hospital highlights improvements in patient management, data collection and decision-making following the introduction of e-Care. Faster access to medical histories supports clinicians, while better operational data helps managers assess services and patient flow.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported that e-Care operates at 13 public facilities under a “one patient, one record” approach, supporting information-sharing among authorised providers.

Technology alone, however, cannot deliver resilience. Skilled professionals must verify identities, address incomplete entries, monitor data quality, manage access and train users. Investment in software must therefore be matched by adequate staffing, professional development, reliable connectivity, secure backups and disaster-recovery plans.

Health information, NIDS and data protection

The National Identification System (NIDS) can further strengthen this foundation if implemented with security, transparency and public trust. The media reported in 2025 that NIDS is intended to provide a comprehensive, secure database for the personal information of citizens and eligible residents; more than 1.4 million Registrar General’s Department records had already been digitised by December 2024. NIDS is described as a secure and reliable means of authenticating identity, supported by enrolment sites and public-key infrastructure.

For health care, dependable identity verification can reduce duplicate records, prevent dangerous patient mismatches and help authorised providers connect the right person to the right clinical history. However, NIDS should enable trustworthy identification, not become a warehouse of medical details. Access must be role-based, necessary, auditable and governed by clear purpose. Linking identity and health systems without these safeguards could magnify the consequences of error or breach.

This is why Jamaica’s data protection act is not an obstacle to digital health but a pillar of it. Under the Act, physical or mental health information is classified as sensitive personal data requiring heightened protection. The media has stressed that secure electronic platforms, confidentiality and proper documentation are increasingly important as health care becomes digital. It has also highlighted the rights of data subjects and the duty of controllers to process information with due regard for those rights, warning that breaches may expose organisations to civil claims.

A resilient health-information system must therefore collect only what is necessary, maintain accurate records, restrict access, protect information in storage and transit, retain it only as long as required, and dispose of it securely. It must also prepare for incidents. The Observer explained in March this year that a breach affecting, or potentially affecting, personal data must be reported to the information commissioner within 72 hours, alongside mitigation measures and other prescribed details. Resilience means preventing failure where possible, detecting it quickly, protecting patients, recovering responsibly and learning from it.

Bright future: Training, recognition, AI

There is another encouraging development. Enrolment statistics from the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, the country’s leading educator in health information management, show an increase in the number of persons expressing interest and pursuing degrees in Health Information Management and related fields. UTech offers health information management and related pathways through its College of Health Sciences at both undergraduate and graduate levels. This growing interest is a positive sign as Jamaica pursues wider e-health penetration across the public system, because digital expansion will require a larger workforce with the requisite training to unite clinical knowledge, information governance, data quality, technology and ethics.

The future will bring artificial intelligence that can support coding, detect missing information, forecast demand, identify disease patterns and assist clinical decisions. But AI will only be as trustworthy as the data, governance and human judgement behind it. Jamaica’s health information professionals must help lead that future by testing systems for accuracy and bias, protecting confidentiality and keeping people accountable for consequential decisions. With skilled guardians, robust policies and secure digital infrastructure, health information can become more than a record of care: it can become the backbone of a resilient, intelligent and humane health system.

Greg-Louis Austin, PhD is a health information management educator. E-mail glhaustin@yahoo.com.

Greg-Louis Austin, PhD .