At a meeting held by the Health IT policy committee on Tuesday, Roger Baker, the Veterans Affairs Department's new chief information officer, injected a dose of practical reality to the very wonkish discussion of what "meaningful use" of electronic health record systems means -- as required by the 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act.
The 19-member policy committee had somehow missed the issue of patient privacy based on oral and written presentations at its meeting today, so about an hour into the discussion, Baker raised the issue - and forcefully.
Patient privacy, Baker told the committee and David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology in the Health and Human Services Department, is the "critical piece" in development of a nationwide electronic health record system and it is the "key to adoption."
Kudos to Baker for stating the obvious. I can only hope that in the future, privacy will indeed top the list of any discussions about electronic health records.
COMMENTS
1) What is the scope for the application? Are we just talking Veteran's who already have their health records paid for and managed by the government? Or is this for everyone? There would be concerns about the average citizen being able to get health care, especially if they have a pre-existing condition.
2) What will be the uses (note plural) for the information gathered?
3) Will there be the legal ability to opt out?
4) What specifically will be the punishment for abuse/misuse of information?
AMS 06/17/09 11:33 am ET
Confidentiality is the constraint of access, Privacy is the limit of use to agreed purpose and Security is a process providing both.
Our role-based access control approach offers Confidentiality via the cryptographic envelope We provide Privacy by the restricted access, and the audit of the transaction, as well as by the adjudication of the enveloped data to only those appropriate We offer an enterprise wide system of Security process that addresses all things digital regardless of network topography.
Bruce Brotman 06/17/09 07:13 am ET