Category: Uncategorized

Interesting piece in the Statesman Journal about how mandatory screening of babies has led to some ethical debate about the use of the blood spots for broader research purposes.

Jon Ungoed-Thomas reports: The NHS is sending millions of patient records and confidential medical notes to India for processing — despite a pledge by Labour that personal information would not be sent overseas. It is the first time that databases of names, addresses and NHS numbers of patients have been sent abroad, along with private…

A privacy-themed lawsuit. K. Douglas Lee writes: Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel and I have filed a class action lawsuit today, Good Friday 2010, challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as “ObamaCare” and a variety of other less polite euphemisms. From the complaint: Moreover, compelling Plaintiffs to enter…

From the editors of the Washington Times: Blog sites have been buzzing about the National Medical Device Registry, a new office in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that was created in the Obamacare reconciliation package. Concern centers on the registry’s authority to conduct “postmarket device surveillance activities on implantable medical devices,” including those that…

New amendments to the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) will improve patient access rights and privacy standards by helping Manitobans understand how to access their personal health information and how it is shared with others, creating a stronger culture of patient care and safety in the health-care system, Health Minister Theresa Oswald announced today. “These…

Margaret R. McLean, Ph.D., is director of bioethics and associate director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University.  She writes: Almost a decade after the Human Genome Project cracked the genetic code, the wall of privacy surrounding genetic information may be developing a few cracks of its own. This is not such…