Category: Health Data

Information privacy lawyer Dan Solove has a commentary on the recent news article in the New York Times, “Lawyers Fight DNA Samples Gained on Sly,” in which he writes: […] DNA is sensitive information in many people’s books, but it is also very hard to keep contained. We leave traces of DNA everywhere we go…

Statement issued by UCLA Health System, April 6: UCLA Health System considers patient confidentiality a critical part of our mission of providing the highest level of teaching, research and patient care. Our concern for our patients is absolute, and we regret any breach of patient confidentiality. After news stories first appeared in May 2007 about…

Hayden Donnell of the North Shore Times reports: An online medical database has North Shore GPs worried for their patients’ privacy. They are hitting out at the system, called TestSafe, saying it could be used to put patient medical records into the wrong hands. Milford doctor John Russell says he has seen two cases where…

News story here.  Commentary here.

Chris Purdy, Saskatchewan News Network; and Canwest News Service report: For the second time in less than a month, boxes of abandoned patient health files have been discovered in vacant office space. At least 2,000 records were found last week in the Hammond Building in Moose Jaw. About six boxes of files were sitting in…

The Associated Press is reporting that California first lady Maria Shriver is among 32 celebrity patients who had their confidential medical records accessed by unauthorized personnel at UCLA Medical Center. According to their report, the same employee who breached actress Farrah Fawcett’s records also breached the privacy of other high-profile or celebrity patients by snooping…