Wall Street Journal
I learned about the lack of health privacy when I hung out my shingle as a psychiatrist. Patients asked if I could keep their records private if they paid for care themselves. They had lost jobs or reputations because what they said in the doctor's office didn't always stay in the doctor's office. That was 35 years ago, in the age of paper. In today's digital world the problem has only grown worse.
A patient's sensitive information should not be shared without his consent. But this is not the case now, as the country moves toward a system of electronic medical records.[...]
I learned about the lack of health privacy when I hung out my shingle as a psychiatrist. Patients asked if I could keep their records private if they paid for care themselves. They had lost jobs or reputations because what they said in the doctor's office didn't always stay in the doctor's office. That was 35 years ago, in the age of paper. In today's digital world the problem has only grown worse.
A patient's sensitive information should not be shared without his consent. But this is not the case now, as the country moves toward a system of electronic medical records.[...]
UK medical records database a $20 billion catastrophe
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52111,news-comment,news-politics,the-nhs-database-is-in-critical-condition-tony-blairs-grand-projet-has-become-a-12-billion-catastrophe-health-lsp?DCMP=NLC-daily
Record sharing doesn't work,
As a physician with electronic records, I can say that most systems do everything they can to protect privacy but acknowledge that no system is foolproof from a determined hacker.
ReplyDeleteBut with paper, it wasn't much different. A quick break-in or someone grabbing a file when no one was looking could also happen.