Angela Hall writes in the Leader-Post: REGINA — Hundreds of patient files have been discovered in a vacant Yorkton office space, prompting an investigation by the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. An anonymous complaint tipped the commissioner’s office to the presence of five large boxes containing what appears to be physician records for as many…
Category: Health Data
Practicing Patients
Thomas Goetz writes in the NY Times: […] PatientsLikeMe started with a single case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In 1998, Stephen Heywood, a 29-year-old carpenter, learned that he had A.L.S., a neurodegenerative disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Jamie, his older brother, quit his job to find a cure. An M.I.T.-trained mechanical engineer with…
UK: Patients kept in the dark as hundreds of records go astray
David Higgerson of the Liverpool Daily Post reports: THE records of hundreds of Merseyside patients have gone missing from the region’s hospitals and surgeries over the past two years. Many of the incidents – including one where the names, partial addresses and door access codes to sheltered accommodation were taken – have prompted changes in…
Congress probes stolen laptop with 2,500 heart patients' names
Lawmakers are questioning why the government waited almost a month to warn 2,500 patients enrolled in a National Institutes of Health study that some of their medical records were in a stolen laptop computer.The laptop was stolen from the locked trunk of a researcher’s car on Feb. 23, but the NIH didn’t send letters notifying…
Can you keep a medical secret?
Daniel Lee has a thought-provoking piece in the Indianapolis Star: Does a doctor treating you for a broken leg need to know you had an abortion 20 years ago? Should your dentist have access to information about your visit to a psychiatrist? Such questions are moving center stage as patients’ medical records increasingly are transferred…
Contrary to PHR Vendor Hype, Privacy Remains the "Elephant in the Room"
Posted by hippocrates on Trusted.MD: A few weeks ago I posted some commentary on the battle of Google vs. Microsoft in PHR arena. My thinking was that the motivation to use such tools could prove to be a bigger obstacle than privacy. Looking at recent PHR coverage I would opine that privacy still might end…