Reforming the HIPAA Privacy Rule
Safeguarding Privacy and Promoting Research
- Lawrence O. Gostin, JD;
- Sharyl Nass, PhD
- Author Affiliations: O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center (Mr Gostin), and Institute of Medicine (Dr Nass), Washington, DC.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- CONFIDENTIALITY
- HEALTH CARE REFORM
- HEALTH CARE SYSTEM REFORM
- HEALTH POLICY
- HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
- INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- LEGISLATION
- MEDICAL RECORDS SYSTEMS, COMPUTERIZED
- PRIVACY
- RESEARCH
President Obama envisions a national electronic medical records system as a high priority for national health care reform, and Congress recently authorized $20 billion for this technology in the stimulus package.1 Health information technology (IT) could improve the quality and efficiency of health care and lower administrative costs.2 It could also facilitate health research and thus speed the pace of medical advancements. Invasions of privacy and security breaches, however, pose major obstacles to the implementation of health IT.
The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule sought to safeguard the privacy and security of health records.3 Recently, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that the Privacy Rule does not adequately safeguard privacy and significantly impedes high-quality research.4 The result is that patients' medical records are not well protected and researchers cannot effectively search for important discoveries.5
Privacy—safeguarding personal information against unauthorized or unjustified …
