Personal medical information management: the information privacy culture of Asian Countries

Abstract

Asian communities have a distinctive concept in perceiving the value of information privacy, which is completely unique from the description set by western countries. This paper gathers the definition and the theory of information privacy culture. Based on the culture dimension theory of Hofstede, it attempts to reveal the perception and concern of Asian countries towards the privacy of its personal information. A survey was conducted in one of the public universities in Malaysia in order to gauge the ‘power distance’ and ‘collectivistic’ culture characteristic in the public perception towards their personal medical information privacy. The result unveils its support for both theories, despite the increasing trend in privacy appreciation among the post-graduate and professionals in Malaysia. In addition, the result also shows a notable increase in the public privacy concern especially over the management of their personal medical information (PMI) in the hospital information system (HIS). The findings should be considered as valuable in designing the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) system in HIS with the incorporation of privacy preservation elements.