AI-A-Go-GoVille
From a report by Alison Northcott of the CBC:
From a report by Alison Northcott of the CBC:
Going to the doctor can involve sharing your most personal information, including details about your health, medical history and prescriptions.
It all ends up in your medical record — but a new study by researchers at Women's College Hospital in Toronto found that in some cases, private companies are accessing parts of that data and selling it to pharmaceutical companies...
{snip}
...Through a series of 19 interviews, the researchers concluded "chains of for-profit primary care clinics, physicians, commercial data brokers and pharmaceutical companies ... work together to convert patient medical records into commercial assets."
{snippety doo-dah}
...(Lead author Dr. Cheryl) Spithoff and her colleagues identified two different models. In one, a private clinic sells data to an outside company, with personal information like names and birth dates removed. The company then offers to sell or analyze that de-identified information for its clients in the pharmaceutical industry.
In the other model, the clinic is a subsidiary of the company collecting the data, giving that company even more direct access to patient information...
The real issue here as all these data are rapidly becoming digitized is the lack of regulation, not to mention consent.
Oh, and of course, privatized delivery plays a role as well.
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The actual paper, published in JAMA Network Open, is here.
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The actual paper, published in JAMA Network Open, is here.
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3 comments:
According to the the Emergency Doctor I saw last year, my health chart read "Like A Bad Novel"!
It was a dark and stormy night...
Once a lot of hospitals, doctors, etc went on computer, it has always been my belief nothing was confidential. Always liked the fact my G.P. kept only handwritten notes. Another don't think any one looking at their notes would have figured out what he wrote, only they knew what it translated to.
It truly is about time laws were passed to protect our privacy. Eventually computers will figure out who the people are and then its going to not turn out well for we the patients.
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