U.S. States Selling Hospital Data that Puts Patients' Privacy at Risk

By EmmaZahn on Sun, 06/09/2013 - 9:45am |

Coincident with the NSA privacy flap, Bloomberg News ran a story this week on how many U.S. state health organizations are selling supposedly “anonymous” patient information to pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and researchers that can, using other publicly available data and well-known analytical techniques, personally re-identify those patients. [...] Given all the personal information publicly available for sale—the medical information databases join readily-available commercial databases for driver license information and web surfing habits and location data, to name just two—the NSA flap looks almost tame in comparison.

URL:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/us-states-selling-hospital-data-that-puts-patients-privacy-at-risk

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First time I had a doc zap my prescription to my local Walgreen's, I got Kafka chills. Especially thinking about the girls with access to that computer at my Walgreeen's. What I fear most is not so much the competence but the incompetence of the people that will have access to the wunnerful new world of your electronic medical life.

by artappraiser on Mon, 06/10/2013 - 2:27pm

You can get reminders of when prescriptions are ready for pickup, check on how many refills are left,etc.All available on an iPhone app. You can also be reminded by IPhone alert when it is tome to take meds. Advanced society or Big Brother?

by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/10/2013 - 3:26pm

In the late 1990s, I worked for a company that did outsourcing of medical transcriptions. The doctors, from mental health to physical health, would dictate their notes into the phone and it was then sent to our site where a team of transcriptionists would type it up. Then it would be sent electronically back. So much of your medical files have flying around as 0s and 1s for years.

by Elusive Trope on Mon, 06/10/2013 - 5:27pm

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