fringe: Warning on Storage of Health Records

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Farber <dave () 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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