Author: Dissent

 The Canadian Press reports: The Canadian Medical Association launched a new online pilot project Tuesday it says will help patients take a more active role in their health. “It empowers patients,” said Brian Day, the president of the Canadian Medical Association. The new online “tool” was introduced by Day at a news conference and later…

Aaron Applegate of The Virginian-Pilot reports: An unconscious man was spotted last week in the parking lot of a BJ’s Wholesale Club. He was taken to Sentara Bayside Hospital and pronounced dead. Six hours later, a man in hospital scrubs used the dead man’s credit card at Best Buy to buy a laptop computer, police…

Seen at MySuncoast.com: Six people in Miami are facing federal fraud charges in an alleged scheme to steal patient information from a hospital. Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said Tuesday the six people used the stolen information to submit about $8 million in false claims to Medicare. The information involving about 1,500 people was…

Mike Maciag of the Journal Star reports: A former Illinois Eye Center employee could have used confidential patient information for identity theft. According to a letter the eye center sent last week to affected patients, the records obtained include patient names, Social Security numbers and birthdates. It is believed females between ages 18 and 25…

The World Privacy Forum has published a new page on genetic privacy outlining basic policy issues and collecting World Privacy Forum work in the area. The page also links to key external research being done in privacy and genetics, and also links to key organizations doing work in this area in the U.S. and the…

Ann Cavoukian, the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, has a letter to the editor in the New York Times in which she recommends Canadian medical privacy law as a model for us: Re “Safeguarding Private Medical Data” (editorial, March 26): I couldn’t agree with you more. In Ontario, we take privacy very seriously, especially when it…