Privacy Group Warns of Digital Health Records

By Kenneth Corbin | December 02, 2009
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All electronic medical records aren't created equally. As federal policy makers move toward bringing health records into the 21st century, a watchdog group issues a report card scoring several leading systems on their privacy policies. eSecurityPlanet has the full story.

A consumer watchdog group is warning that many leading electronic medical record systems don't do enough to secure sensitive patient information.

"We're alarmed about the growing use of personal health information without patients' knowledge or explicit permission," Ashley Katz, executive director of Patient Privacy Rights, told reporters on a conference call.

Katz's group today released a report card evaluating the privacy protections embedded in several leading electronic medical record systems, finding that while results varied widely, many products come up short.

The push to digitize medical records, both as a means to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes, has emerged as a policy priority of the Obama administration, which backed a stimulus bill that included $19 billion to fund electronic personal health records (PHRs).

Privacy Group Warns of Digital Health Records

Read the full story at eSecurityPlanet.com