<div>NPR had a story about this on Morning Edition today, as well.</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89688554">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89688554</a></div>
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<div>
<p><span class="program"><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3">Morning Edition</a>,</span> <span class="date">April 17, 2008 · </span>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 <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em> 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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
[..]<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><span class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">security curmudgeon</b> <<a href="mailto:jericho@attrition.org">jericho@attrition.org</a>><br>Date: Apr 17, 2008 1:35 PM<br>
Subject: [Dataloss] fringe: Warning on Storage of Health Records<br>To: <a href="mailto:dataloss@attrition.org">dataloss@attrition.org</a><br><br></span><br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: David Farber <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dave@farber.net" target="_blank">dave@farber.net</a>><br>
<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/17record.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/17record.html</a><br>Warning on Storage of Health Records<br>
By STEVE LOHR<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>The arrival of these new corporate entrants, the authors write, promises to bring "a seismic change" in the control and stewardship of patient information.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>[..]<br>_______________________________________________<br>Dataloss Mailing List (<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dataloss@attrition.org">dataloss@attrition.org</a>)<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://attrition.org/dataloss" target="_blank">http://attrition.org/dataloss</a><br>
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