Much attention has greeted Google’s pilot project to provide electronic medical records online. But concerns about violations of privacy are woefully misplaced. […] Considering the state of medical privacy, the gain from consumer-controlled medical records simply outweighs privacy concerns. Rather than apply a federal medical privacy law to Google, state legislatures interested in protecting privacy…
Cyber criminals overseas steal U.S. electronic health records
Bob Brewin of NextGov reports: In 2004, when Bush administration officials unveiled a project to provide every American with an electronic health record by 2014, they pledged to put privacy and security first. But the discovery in April of stolen health records containing sensitive medical information about U.S. patients on a computer server in Malaysia…
Google Health beta service goes live
James Niccolai of IDG News Service reports: Google launched an ambitious initiative Monday that aims to give people a central place online to store their health records and then share them with health-care providers. The public can go today to www.google.com/health and create profiles that include basic medical information such as existing medical conditions, allergies…
Hospitals underrate malicious intent in data breaches
Pamela Lewis Dolan reports in the May 26 issue of AMNews: Hospitals generally are well aware of what they have to do under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to ensure the security of patient data. They are also aware that their own employees might be the ones who breach that security. However, hospitals…
YouTube epilepsy videos condemned
Epilepsy campaigners have criticised the posting of footage on the YouTube website of people having seizures. The National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) said some videos – although not all – were voyeuristic, and the modern equivalent of the Victorian freak show. The website features many clips of people having seizures, and others faking seizures –…
Ca: Investigation confirms Albertans' right to ask custodians to limit disclosure of health information through Alberta Netcare
Information and Privacy Commissioner, Frank Work, has confirmed that individuals can ask that disclosure of their health information through Alberta Netcare, Alberta’s electronic health record, be limited. On conclusion of a recent investigation, it was recommended that Alberta Health and Wellness take steps to fully implement the technology that will allow custodians to limit…