Warning – Alberta’s privacy commissioner said this week he is worried about potential changes to the provincial health information act that will make it more difficult for patients to control their medical information. Under the proposed amendments to the legislation, Frank Work believes albertans will no longer be able to prevent their most sensitive medical…
Author: Dissent
EDPS opinion on patients' rights: specific data protection dimension of cross-border healthcare needs to be addressed in more concrete terms
On 2 December 2008, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an opinion on a proposal for a Directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. The proposal aims at establishing a Community framework for the provision of cross-border healthcare within the European Union (EU) for those occasions where the care patients…
Army waited to tell of possible security breach
Kevin Dougherty reports: U.S. Army medical officials in southeast Germany waited nearly two months before notifying more than 6,000 beneficiaries of a possible security breach regarding their personal information stored on a lost laptop computer. Authorities know the names, Social Security numbers and health information of at least 26 individuals were stored on the laptop,…
Former UCLA hospital employee pleads guilty
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer reports: A former UCLA Medical Center employee pleaded guilty Monday to selling the private medical information of celebrities and high-profile patients, including Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett, to the National Enquirer. Using a wheelchair, Lawanda Jackson, 49, spoke quietly as she entered her plea to the felony charge of violating federal medical…
In the courts: informed consent and invasion of privacy
Paul Davenport of the Associated Press reports: An Arizona appeals court panel ruled Friday that the Havasupai Indian tribe can proceed with a lawsuit that claims university researchers misused blood samples taken from tribal members. Overturning a judge’s 2007 dismissal of the case, a split Arizona Court of Appeals panel said the Havasupai and other…
The doctor will see all of you now
Liz Kowalczyk reports: When Dr. Gene Lindsey arrived to see his 4 p.m. appointment on a recent Thursday, his nine patients already were seated on folding chairs arranged in a semicircle around a table of snacks. Lindsey, a cardiologist, shook each patient’s hand, rolled up his sleeves, and, for the next 90 minutes, examined them,…