[Med-privacy] "Who's Keeping an Eye on Your Online Health Records?"

[peter marshall]

  SciAm.com
Features -  August 19, 2008
Who's Keeping an Eye on Your Online Health Records?
Google, Microsoft and other providers of Web-based services for=20
managing health care information promise to keep it secure, but privacy=20=

policies vary from site to site

By Peter Sergo

The push toward electronic medical records has made storing personal=20
health information in a locked filing cabinet in your doctor's office=20
an outmoded guarantee of confidentiality. Today, patients can gather=20
their jumbled health information=97hospital visits, drug prescriptions=20=

and health insurance plans=97and manage them through a number of=20
different online services, including Google Health, Microsoft's=20
HealthVault and AOL co-founder Steve Case's Revolution Health.

Privacy advocates, however, point out that even though these companies=20=

are storing sensitive medical information, they are not bound by the=20
strict data sharing and protection laws that govern the health care=20
industry. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act=20=

(HIPAA) regulates how health care entities, such as insurance companies=20=

and hospitals, exchange an individual's health information, but the law=20=

does not apply to personal health record storage services, according to=20=

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Because there are no laws that directly protect a user's online health=20=

information, all of the vendors who sell weight scales and/or blood=20
glucose and pressure monitors that can send data directly to services=20
like HealthVault set their own privacy policies, which means some will=20=

be weaker than others. "There isn't anyone to regulate the security and=20=

privacy of the personal health information records," says Deven McGraw,=20=

director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and=20=

Technology, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.=96based public advocacy group=20=

that focuses on the impact of technology on individual rights. "It is=20
not a very good landscape for consumers in regards to very sensitive=20
health information."