Patient consent principles and guidelines for e-consent: a New Zealand perspective

E-consent systems are attracting considerable interest as healthcare providers increasingly apply information technology and management to plan and deliver high-quality and cost-effective healthcare. These systems can ensure that patients are informed about the consequences of clinical intervention or the use to which their personal health information is put, as well as able to log the conditions of consent and create an audit trail. This article considers the nature of patient consent and the control of information before outlining the characteristics, benefits and limitations of e-consent systems. It then surveys international developments in e-consent before describing a project to develop a framework for such consent in New Zealand. The results of this project offer recommen-dations for further development and implementation of the framework