[Dataloss] fringe: Warning on Storage of Health Records

[Aaron Abbott]

NPR had a story about this on Morning Edition today, as well.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89688554


Morning Edition
<http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3>, April
17, 2008 · There are Web sites that allow you to keep information about your
medical treatment online, where you and your doctor can access it easily. An
article in the *New England Journal of Medicine* on Thursday asks if
electronic medical records are the next big thing in health care. The
answer? When it comes to keeping these records yourself, it depends.

Debbie Witchey is like many Americans: She wants to have all her medical
records accessible online. Dozens of Internet sites offer the service, some
free, some not.

Witchey knows about personal health records. She's senior vice president of
government affairs for the Healthcare Leadership Council, a Washington,
D.C.-based lobbying group for the health care industry. It's pushing
something different: electronic health records, which doctors and hospitals
keep on computers so they're quickly available to any doctor at any
hospital. The council doesn't have a position on personal health records,
which individuals maintain.
[..]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: security curmudgeon <jericho at attrition.org>
Date: Apr 17, 2008 1:35 PM
Subject: [Dataloss] fringe: Warning on Storage of Health Records
To: dataloss at attrition.org



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/17record.html
Warning on Storage of Health Records
By STEVE LOHR

In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, two leading
researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google
into the field of personal health records could drastically alter the
practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of
patient records.

The authors, Dr. Kenneth D. Mandl and Dr. Isaac S. Kohane, are longtime
proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records to improve care and
help individuals make smarter health decisions.

But their concern, stated in the article published Wednesday and in an
interview, is that the medical profession and policy makers have not begun
to grapple with the implications of companies like Microsoft and Google
becoming the hosts for vast stores of patient information.

The arrival of these new corporate entrants, the authors write, promises to
bring "a seismic change" in the control and stewardship of patient
information.

Today, most patient records remain within the health system — in doctors'
offices, hospitals, clinics, health maintenance organizations and pharmacy
networks. Federal regulations govern how personal information can be shared
among health institutions and insurers, and the rules restrict how such
information can be mined for medical research. One requirement is that
researchers have no access to individual patients' identities.

[..]
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