Category: Uncategorized

Andrew MacLeod reports: Acting information and privacy commissioner Paul Fraser has asked health minister Kevin Falcon to withdraw proposed amendments to health legislation until privacy concerns are fully considered. “I was taken by surprise to discover these very significant amendments in a miscellaneous bill,” said Fraser in an April 22 letter. Bill 11, the 2010:…

Matt Anderson comments: In a previous issue, I related a conversation I had with a patient about the electronic medical record (EMR) and described to her the problems of poor documentation and up-coding. My conversation with my patient continued, as I told her about the legal intrusions of her privacy made possible or made easier…

Dan Goodin reports: The UK’s National Health Service has been hit by a voracious, data-stealing worm that’s easily detected by off-the-shelf security software, according to researchers who directly observed the mass compromise. Researchers from anti-virus provider Symantec have been monitoring the Qakbot worm since last May and have documented its behavior here and here. On…

There’s a Note by Colin P. McCarthy in the latest issue of William and Mary Law Review that reviews some of the privacy, security and regulatory issues surrounding personal health records: “Paging Dr. Google: Personal Health Records and Patient Privacy.”

Amy Harmon of the New York Times has more on the settlement in the Havasupai case (covered here) and the ethical issues. As part of her two stories, she reports: “It is a gesture of respect to say, ‘We told you we wanted to do one thing, and we’d really like to do something else,’…

Eugene Volokh alerts us to a decision in a case in which the Maryland Commissioner of Corrections went to court to compel a prisoner to accept treatment for end stage renal disease over the prisoner’s objections and refusal.  From the decision: This case presents the question of whether the Commissioner presented sufficient evidence to override…