Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: IP: Query from the UK RE: Targeted marketing gets personal
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 12:47:41 -0500
To: Stuart Schwartzstein <sschwartzstein () onreur navy mil> From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org> -- Folder: YES -- Sir: We both read Dave Farber's stuff.... 1. re who owns medical records. I'm not sure of that answer but I do know that various states have laws stipulating that a patient is entitled to a copy of his patient record. Some state laws exclude psychiatric records. I'll make a probe and see whether I can find anything more. My intuition says that the question has never been resolved in the strict sense of ownership; namely, having sole control who the asset including the ability to do with it whatever one wishes provided it is legal. My guess (non-lawyerly) would be that by tradition patient records are considered to be the property of the provider, but that position has been moderated by various laws providing access and right to copy. MDs historically had argued that it would do the patient more harm than good to have a copy of records, not to mention the jargon that a patient would not understand and phsicians' handwriting that only the in-group can recognize. 2. re database matching ... there is a federal law governing such activities. I do not recall its name but your JAG should be able to run it down. It's likely to be in the USC wherever the Privay Act of 1974 is stashed. It's many years old (perhaps close to 10) and stipulates the rules under which federal agencies are allowed to match databases. Among the rules that I recall are: a. Publish notice of intent and rationale of the action in federal register with 30 (maybe 90) day public comment period b. Manually verify all hits to make sure that they are indeed valid hits c. Some privacy stipulations In regard to these questions, good place to have a search is the online archives of epic.org ... If you know anyone at EPIC you might give it a query. You could also go for a good old altavista search, or a search on some legal database. Willis Ware RAND Santa Monica, CA ******************************** See you at INET'98, Geneva 21-24, July 98 <http://www.isoc.org/inet98/>
Current thread:
- IP: Query from the UK RE: Targeted marketing gets personal Dave Farber (Feb 17)
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- Re: IP: Query from the UK RE: Targeted marketing gets personal Dave Farber (Feb 17)