Dr. Ken Pope writes on his mail list: An article with information relevant to patients’ informed consent, protection of human subjects, and the history of medical experimentation is scheduled for publication in the January, 2011, issue of Journal of Policy History. The article is “”Normal Exposure” and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS ‘Tuskegee’ Doctor in Guatemala,…
Category: Uncategorized
Court: society's interest outweighs friars' privacy interests in psychiatric records
Psychiatric or mental health records are among the most sensitive records anywhere and courts have routinely stood firm in protecting confidentiality of those records. In a case involving the sexual molestation of children by friars, however, a court has held that the compelling social interests in protecting children outweighs the friars’ privacy interests in their…
Article: DNA Theft: Recognizing the Crime of Nonconsensual Genetic Collection and Testing
Elizabeth E. Joh of the U.C. Davis has an article in a forthcoming issue of the Boston University Law Review (Vol. 91, 2011). Here’s the abstract: The fact that you leave genetic information behind on the discarded tissues, used coffee cups, and smoked cigarettes everywhere you go is generally of little consequence. The trouble arises…
PCI Vendor Offers $100K For Any Customer Breached
Evan Schuman writes: With all of the PCI shell games around, it’s nice to find one vendor offering what seems to be a legitimate PCI insurance program: Use its package and get breached, and the vendor will reimburse some of your out-of-pocket breach costs, with a $100,000 cap. The program, from a company called BHI…
Social Networks For Patients Stir Privacy, Security Worries
Kelly Jackson Higgins writes: Social networking is infiltrating healthcare with platforms for patients to share intimate details of their diagnoses, medications, physical conditions, locations, and other personal data — and not necessarily anonymously. Members of emerging sites, such as PatientsLikeMe, DailyStrength, andHealthyPlace, for example, can post profiles similar to those on Facebook, and many users are posting…
Heartland Payment Systems bolsters encryption
Ellen Messmer reports: Heartland Payment Systems, which last year suffered a devastating data breach, has been on a mission to secure payment-card processing . After introducing the E3 terminal for point-of-sale transactions last May, which has gone into use with about 5,000 Heartland merchant customers for encryption of sensitive cardholder data, Heartland Tuesday introduced yet…