In health services, it is a necessity to keep the records of the patients. Although paper-based records are commonly used for this aim, they are not as convenient as computerized records. Therefore, many of the health facilities have recently started keeping patients&rsquo / health records in electronic databases. However, new questions about confidentiality and privacy of these records were raised with this new system.This study aims to investigate the opinions and attitudes of the people who use the health services of Turkey about the privacy and confidentiality of health information in electronic environment. In the survey, there are 596 participants from 64 different cities in six geographical regions of Turkey. The findings show that people feel comfortable about computer usage in health-care but they are concerned about the privacy and confidentiality of their information and also they are not sure if their medical information is safe and secure now. Moreover, they are mostly unaware about current regulations related to information privacy in Turkey. The study also shows that people trust in their doctors, health researchers in universities, pharmacist, nurses and other hospital staff but do not trust in insurance companies, government, private sector health researchers, information technology specialists and government health researchers for the privacy of their medical records.

The sharing of personal information among health and social service organisations is a complex issue and problematic process in present-day England. Organisations which provide services to children face enormous challenges on many fronts. Internal ways of working, evolving best practice, data protection applications, government mandates and new government agencies, rapid changes in technology, and increasing costs are but a few of the challenges with which organisations must contend in order to provide services to children while keeping in step with change. This thesis is an exploration into the process of sharing personal information in the context of public sector reforms. Because there is an increasing emphasis of multi-agency collaboration, this thesis examines the information sharing processes both within and among organisations, particularly those providing services to children. From the broad principles which comprise a socio-technical approach of information sharing, distinct critical factors for successful information sharing and best practices are identified. These critical success factors are then used to evaluate the emerging national database, ContactPoint, highlighting particular areas of concern. In addition, data protection and related issues in the information sharing process are addressed. It is argued that one of the main factors which would support effective information sharing is to add a timeline to the life of a dataset containing personal information, after which the shared information would dissolve. Therefore, this thesis introduces Dynamic Multi-Agency Collaboration (DMAC), a theoretical model of effective information sharing using a limited-life dataset. The limited life of the DMAC dataset gives more control to information providers, encouraging effective information sharing within the parameters of the Data Protection Act 1998.