On the Internet ALL your health searches about scary and stigmatizing illnesses, all searches or purchases of books on health, and all searches or purchases of medications and devices are tracked and sold.
It is impossible to search for health information privately via Google, etc.
Health websites take massive advantage of Americans' powerful expectations that ALL healthcare providers put their interests and their privacy first---expectations which come from the traditional doctor-patient relationship and the ethics that have governed Medicine for 2,400 years (derived from the Hippocratic Oath).
Americans are not yet ready to believe that every aspect of healthcare in the US is profit-driven, rather than driven by the ethical codes all health professionals swear to at graduation: the promises to "do no harm" and to "guard their secrets".
Americans are not yet ready to believe that Wall Street has taken over Medicine---and that instead of guaranteeing the strong health privacy rights Americans have under the law, Wall Street erases our rights to ensure shareholder profits.
View this story in the NY Times: Ads Follow Web Users, and Get More Personal
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
From Sharing Music to Sharing Medical Records
Scientific American gets it. Do you? View story here.
Dr. Eric Johnson's latest study is out. Our job is to inform the public and Congress, who are continually being falsely reassured that health IT systems are secure and private by spinmeisters for the insurance, hospital, drug, Health IT, and health data mining industries.
Industry's blatant false promises of security and privacy are something we have been urging FTC to investigate (as false and deceptive trade practices) and the new Administration should understand to ensure that the stimulus funds are not spent on primitive health technologies with abysmal security and no consumer control over PHI. We need 'smart' health IT, 'smart' human processes, and we need the health care industry to step up and use them, so we have trusted electronic systems and don’t waste the stimulus billions.
See Dr. Johnson's paper here.
The research examined samples of health-care data disclosures and search activity in peer-to-peer file sharing networks of the top 10 publicly traded health care firms (using Fortune Magazine's list) over a two-week period. More than 500 hospitals were represented in the 10 organizations. 3,328 files were collected for the study.
•"data losses in the healthcare sector continue at a dizzying pace"
•"Far worse than losing a laptop or storage device with patient data (Robenstein 2008), inadvertent disclosures on P2P networks allow many criminals access to the information, each with different levels of sophistication and ability to exploit the information."
•"Many of the documents were leaked by patients themselves. For example we found several patient-generated spreadsheets containing details of medical treatments and costs--likely for tax purposes."
•"we found a hospital-generated spreadsheet of personally identifiable information on recently-hired employees including social security numbers, contact information, job category, etc"
•"For a hospital system, we found two spreadsheet data bases that contained detailed information on over 20,000 patients including socials security numbers, contact information, and insurance information."
•"For a mental health center, we found patient psychiatric evaluations."
Where is the mainstream and trade journal reporting on this???
Dr. Eric Johnson's latest study is out. Our job is to inform the public and Congress, who are continually being falsely reassured that health IT systems are secure and private by spinmeisters for the insurance, hospital, drug, Health IT, and health data mining industries.
Industry's blatant false promises of security and privacy are something we have been urging FTC to investigate (as false and deceptive trade practices) and the new Administration should understand to ensure that the stimulus funds are not spent on primitive health technologies with abysmal security and no consumer control over PHI. We need 'smart' health IT, 'smart' human processes, and we need the health care industry to step up and use them, so we have trusted electronic systems and don’t waste the stimulus billions.
See Dr. Johnson's paper here.
The research examined samples of health-care data disclosures and search activity in peer-to-peer file sharing networks of the top 10 publicly traded health care firms (using Fortune Magazine's list) over a two-week period. More than 500 hospitals were represented in the 10 organizations. 3,328 files were collected for the study.
•"data losses in the healthcare sector continue at a dizzying pace"
•"Far worse than losing a laptop or storage device with patient data (Robenstein 2008), inadvertent disclosures on P2P networks allow many criminals access to the information, each with different levels of sophistication and ability to exploit the information."
•"Many of the documents were leaked by patients themselves. For example we found several patient-generated spreadsheets containing details of medical treatments and costs--likely for tax purposes."
•"we found a hospital-generated spreadsheet of personally identifiable information on recently-hired employees including social security numbers, contact information, job category, etc"
•"For a hospital system, we found two spreadsheet data bases that contained detailed information on over 20,000 patients including socials security numbers, contact information, and insurance information."
•"For a mental health center, we found patient psychiatric evaluations."
Where is the mainstream and trade journal reporting on this???
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Military health forum envisions clinical analytics -- by Peter Buxbaum
David Winn is right, when you sign up for the military, you have to do whatever they say.
The problem is that the Administration and the federal government has the same thing in mind for every American--no control over access to PHI.
The payers think they own our PHI and should be able to do whatever they want with it--even though it's both illegal and unethical. That is why industry is pressing Congress to pass an HIT bill without consumer control over access to PHI. BUT---people will lie or not participate in electronic health systems if their data is used without consent---which means we will never get the kind of research we want because the data analyzed will be incomplete and flawed.
Americans just want to be asked for consent for research and be sure that HIT systems are safe and secure.
View Full Article
The problem is that the Administration and the federal government has the same thing in mind for every American--no control over access to PHI.
The payers think they own our PHI and should be able to do whatever they want with it--even though it's both illegal and unethical. That is why industry is pressing Congress to pass an HIT bill without consumer control over access to PHI. BUT---people will lie or not participate in electronic health systems if their data is used without consent---which means we will never get the kind of research we want because the data analyzed will be incomplete and flawed.
Americans just want to be asked for consent for research and be sure that HIT systems are safe and secure.
View Full Article
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Health Record Paparazzi is Above the Law and In Bed With Congress
We learned today that all of us are a bit like George Clooney: the Health Record Paparazzi loves a celebrity, but it loves the average American just as well. Instead of intrusive cameras flashing and TMZ taping our every move, we have insurers, employers, hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, drug companies, marketers, creditors and banks digging around for our most personal, intimate information.
HIPAA protects no one, including movie stars. The HIPAA regulations were changed by a Bush appointee that defy the ancient doctor-patient promise that when a patient goes to their doctor, whatever they share will be kept private. No one can make that guarantee anymore. To see the fine print visit Patient Privacy Rights.
Over 4 million individuals and businesses can see and use our health records, without consent and over objections. HIPAA is so broad it is hard to imagine who doesn’t have a legal right to your most personal details.
The Health Record Paparazzi can be stopped -- but only by an act of Congress. Right now, Congress is working on legislation that will open up your health records even more. Everyone will have control over your health information except the patient.
We must have federal legislation that guarantees our right to control our most personal information and requires meaningful, enforceable penalties for everyone who shares our information without consent.
HIPAA protects no one, including movie stars. The HIPAA regulations were changed by a Bush appointee that defy the ancient doctor-patient promise that when a patient goes to their doctor, whatever they share will be kept private. No one can make that guarantee anymore. To see the fine print visit Patient Privacy Rights.
Over 4 million individuals and businesses can see and use our health records, without consent and over objections. HIPAA is so broad it is hard to imagine who doesn’t have a legal right to your most personal details.
The Health Record Paparazzi can be stopped -- but only by an act of Congress. Right now, Congress is working on legislation that will open up your health records even more. Everyone will have control over your health information except the patient.
We must have federal legislation that guarantees our right to control our most personal information and requires meaningful, enforceable penalties for everyone who shares our information without consent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
