Patients who participate in clinical trials expect that their personal information will remain confidential, but a recent study led by Dr. Khaled El-Emam, Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information at the CHEO Research Institute, found that the security practices used to transfer and share sensitive files were inadequate. The two-part study, entitled “How Strong…
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Prescriptions and privacy
Kimberly Gray writes: Much has been made in the media of late [such as in The Journal’s Feb. 10 editorial “Mining your pill purchases”] of the concern of protecting privacy in the Information Age, but as we focus on developing the appropriate protocols, regulations and innovative privacy and security strategies, it does no one any…
Bill would require paternity tests for newborns
The Associated Press reports: A bill introduced in the Kansas House would require every newborn in the state to be genetically tested to identify the child’s father. State Rep. Melody McCray Miller, a Democrat from Wichita, says the bill is intended to help men who have been named as a child’s father, or who want…
Healthcare Social Media Sites Neglect Privacy Protections
Nicole Lewis reports: As the Internet in general and social networking in particular are used as a point of reference for gathering and sharing health information, a study that examined 10 diabetes-focused social networking sites has found that the quality of clinical information, as well as privacy policies, significantly varied across these sites. Read more…
Ie: Clergy no longer given hospital admission lists
Eoghan MacConnell reports: Hospital admission lists are no longer being made available to members of the clergy seeking to check if their parishioners are in hospital. The long-standing practice of allowing priests to check admissions has been stopped by recent data protection legislation. “Generally the priests regret that the list isn’t available for practical reasons,”…
It: Govt's proposal put female patients' privacy at risk
From AGI: The PD warned that, with an amendment to the Milleproroghe decree, the government is putting women’s privacy at risk. “With an amendment to the Milleproroghe decree, the government is launching an attack on women’s privacy, effectively putting it at risk. An article proposed by the government and voted yesterday by the Senate would…