Lisa Demer reports: An Anchorage Superior Court judge has upheld as constitutional a state law requiring parents to be notified before a teen’s abortion. But the issue may not be resolved. Both sides expect it will wind up before the state Supreme Court. Judge John Suddock, in a 65-page decision issued Monday, said the legal…
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Roseville cancer patient says TSA violated privacy
The situation described below is just so distressing that I don’t even know where to begin. Doug Esser of Associated Press reports: A Michigan woman dying of leukemia said she hopes her embarrassing experience at a Seattle airport changes the way the Transportation Security Administration treats travelers with medical conditions. A TSA spokeswoman said…
Medical privacy threatened by loophole in draft EU data protection law, professor warns
Loek Essers reports: A “huge loophole” is being carved in the European Union’s upcoming data protection regulation, according Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge in England. The way the current draft of the law allows secondary uses of medical records is a privacy scandal waiting to happen, Anderson said…
JP: Internet used to guard medical records from disaster
Storing sensitive records in the cloud may have its own risks, but is that really worse than losing all your patients’ records? Yasuhiro Kobayashi reports what happened in Japan last year following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami: According to Miyagi Prefecture’s medical association, 163 facilities, or 90 percent of hospitals and clinics in the…
Editorial: Hospital should turn over records
A situation in New Hampshire has pitted hospitals’ obligations to protect patient privacy against the state’s legitimate interest in investigating a serious public health and criminal issue. SeacoastOnline has an editorial on the case: The state Department of Public Health has done a great deal to help Exeter Hospital, its patients and the community at…
That "HIPAA Release" says WHAT?
Over on Simple Justice, criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield discusses a news story that is an eye-opener of sorts. It has do with how the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has tried to capitalize on our tendency to not really read HIPAA release authorizations we are asked to sign at a doctor’s office. Read the following carefully:…