Steve Lohr writes in the New York Times: 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…
Category: Health Data
Tokyo hospital computer feared stolen / PC contained confidential information on 17,000 electrocardiography patients
A computer containing personal information on about 17,000 patients has disappeared from Nippon Medical School Hospital in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, sources in the hospital said Wednesday. The data concern patients who have received electrocardiography over the past decade, and include their names, conditions, test results and patient ID numbers–but did not include addresses or…
Consumer groups urge "do not track" registry
Two consumer groups asked the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to create a “do not track list” that would allow computer users to bar advertisers from collecting information about them. The Consumer Federation of America and the Consumers Union also urged the FTC to bar collection of health information and other sensitive data by companies…
Ca: Province Bans Health Data Use for MR
In British Columbia, Canada, new legislation has been passed which according to Health Minister George Abbott, prohibits disclosure of information from electronic databases for market research and allows individuals access to their own health records and medical information. Abbott says that British Columbia is the first province in Canada to create such a legal framework…
NZ: Health workers "blasé" about HIV disclosure
GayNZ.com reports: “Blasé” health care workers are too often divulging the confidential HIV status of their patients and broader data sharing within the medical fraternity is also leading to unwanted HIV status disclosures, according to HIV positive people. As a result, the Privacy Commissioner is urging health care workers to reflect on the way they…
Personal health records latest concern for CIOs
Zach Church writes in Midmarket CIO News: As a growing number of patients take an increasingly proactive role in the management of their own health, sales of software programs that give users access to their personal health records are set to explode, experts say. But the impending proliferation means new responsibilities for CIOs as hospitals…