The issues of privacy and security in medical records are still being worked out, but it’s hard to deny that their still elusive goals: better care through reduced errors and evidenced based medicine, cost savings across the system and MORE control over records for the individual.

Given how HIPAA treats covered entities (neither MS Health Vault nor Google Health are covered) and the amended HIPAA privacy rules– I’m not sure that I’m waiting on the federal government to protect me. Mining prescription data is a multi-billion dollar legal business (with no opt-out). Scott McNealy was right

There are many (including me) that believe Obama’s plan to spend on healthcare IT will dramatically increase the quality of care in America. EMRs are a definitely part of that solution. Good policy and strong enforcement of Privacy is our biggest impediment to this success. Good security is important, but less relevant to this discussion. We need a major reworking of how we think about privacy in this country.

We also need the right incentives in place– right now, we ask doctors to pay for EMR systems– but it’s really the payers that benefit. The stimulus package helps somewhat, but we need a bigger more unified approach.

Just as an aside– there has been a concerted attempt by right-wing lobbying groups to derail attempts to change the current healthcare system. Here’s a great example of how Rush, Drudge and Fox were involved in manipulating a story about Healthcare IT and making it about “healthcare socialism”:

http://www.wash...9_02/016841.php

http://www.heal...tedirectory.com

This system lets the patient revoke the access to the file at any time.

It lets the patient ‘own’ the medical record, not the doctor (and his current paper un-updated copy) as is the current situation.

Besides, it’s not good to have a ‘public’ view of your medical file. You should know who has access to it, and who viewed the file.

Much better than the current situation where every doctor you ever went to has their own ’secret’ version of your medical history.

You may get enough business to keep your company floating for a while, even considering advertising, after a great deal of back-breaking work. However, your approach, although original, will not be able to avoid the significant pitfalls of true “privacy” and “security.”
Your premise is still taking sensitive and private medical information away from the naturally protected, tried-and-true environment of the medical office…

Are you f****ng insane?

EHR, electronic health records are, in theory, a neat idea, but realistically useless. Even with them, medical practices are required by law to keep “hard copies” meaning paper copies of patient’s charts, for at least 7 years, Ideally, copies of these medical records should be kept away from the office in case of destruction by fire, etc.

-Steve
http://www.mitochonsystems.com