March 14th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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Give me your medication list and I’ll tell you your health problems. It happens every day in emergency rooms across the country as confused elderly patients present for an acute problem unable to describe their past medical history, but equipped with a list of medications in their wallet:
Metformin = Type-2 diabetes
Synthroid = Hypothyroidism
Lipitor + Altace + Lasix + Slo-K = Ischemic cardiomyopathy
Lexapro = A little anxious or depressed
Viagra = Well, you know…
I bet I’d be right better than 90 percent of the time. Now, imagine you’re a pharmaceutical company wanting to target people with those chronic diseases. Where might you find them?
No problem. Just pay the insurers to provide you patients’ drug lists. No names need be exchanged in keeping with HIPAA requirements. But the drugs list attached to folks’ cable TV box? Perfect. You’re in — with no legal strings attached. Then, according to the Wall Street Journal, just fire away with that targeted direct-to-consumer advertising on TV, courtesy of your local healthcare insurance provider.
No wonder our healthcare industry movers and shakers love the electronic medical record. Healthcare privacy? What healthcare privacy?
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
February 3rd, 2011 by Medgadget in Health Policy, News
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Most of our posts here deal with gadgets physicians or other medical professionals would use, but the New York Times has published an article about issues stemming from the patient or the family bringing cameras into the delivery room.
Now, as anyone who’s been made to watch a video of a friend’s delivery during a party can attest, this isn’t a new phenomenon. However, since almost any device can record video now and it’s easiest to share the video online, medical-legal considerations are leading some hospitals to restrict any and all recordings of live births.
We’d be interested to know what our readers think. Do you let patients film you while you work?
New York Times article: Rules on Cameras in Delivery Rooms Stir Passions…
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
November 29th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
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From the official White House statement yesterday regarding WikiLeaks disclosure of diplomatic cables:
“By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights, but also the lives and work of the individuals. We condemn in strongest terms, the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.”
No matter what people think of WikiLeaks disclosure of approximately 250,000 classified diplomatic cables to the Internet yesterday with the help of the New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde, the implications to electronic healthcare information security are significant.
Day in and day out, I type huge volumes of information on my patients on a computer and my fellow physicians do the same. As a result, vast healthcare information warehouses are at the disposal of the government, insurers, and major healthcare institutions eager to become more efficient, strategic, or competitive. We are promised the information is private, confidential, and even stripped of its identifiers for group analysis. It is even protected to remain so by law. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
