The push toward electronic medical records has made storing personal health information in a locked filing cabinet in your doctor's office an outmoded guarantee of confidentiality. Today, patients can gather their jumbled health information—hospital visits, drug prescriptions and health insurance plans—and manage them through a number of different online services, including Google Health, Microsoft's HealthVault and AOL co-founder Steve Case's Revolution Health.

Privacy advocates, however, point out that even though these companies are storing sensitive medical information, they are not bound by the strict data sharing and protection laws that govern the health care industry. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates how health care entities, such as insurance companies and hospitals, exchange an individual's health information, but the law does not apply to personal health record storage services, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Because there are no laws that directly protect a user's online health information, all of the vendors who sell weight scales and/or blood glucose and pressure monitors that can send data directly to services like HealthVault set their own privacy policies, which means some will be weaker than others. "There isn't anyone to regulate the security and privacy of the personal health information records," says Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.–based public advocacy group that focuses on the impact of technology on individual rights. "It is not a very good landscape for consumers in regards to very sensitive health information."

4 Comments

1. 1. smithscott98 10:29 AM 8/24/08

   I read your article on electronic medical records and would like to recommend that you and your readers test drive our unique solution. MyMedicalRecords.com (MMR), a Patient Health Record, put a priority on two issues that are difficult to find together in most PHR programs and EMR systems. First is ease-of-useall your healthcare providers need is a fax machine to put all your records into your account: each is turned into a PDF image using a proprietary process, which you then file. Second is privacy and security: we have such a bulletproof system that no hackers-for-hire have ever been able to penetrate it. You can share the account with up to 10 members of your family and each one would have secondary passwords to be sure privacy is protected. We also provide a special file that can be accessed by emergency personnel, which can have your critical information, like blood type and drug allergies. MMR is also by far the most feature-rich PHR on the market and is an Integrated Service Provider on Google Healthwe have everything from a drug interaction database that red flags contraindications to calendar reminders for doctor appointments and prescription refills. If anyone wants to try this out for 30 days, just use the code TRYMMR.
   Scott Smith
   MyMedicalRecords.com
   Smith.scott98@gmail.com
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. sharoosunidhi 04:34 AM 3/8/09

   
   Hi,
   I am newly join in this site.This site is very useful to others.For those in the business of providing access to information, these regulations are the proverbial double-edged sword.
   ======================================
   sharoo
   <a href=http://www.hipaaguide.net>hipaa</a>

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. sharoosunidhi 04:38 AM 3/8/09

   Hi,
   I am newly join in this site.This site is very useful to others.For those in the business of providing access to information, these regulations are the proverbial double-edged sword.
   ======================================
   sharoo
   <a href="http://www.hipaaguide.net">hipaa</a>

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. sharoosunidhi 04:40 AM 3/8/09

   Hi,
   I am newly join in this site.This site is very useful to others.For those in the business of providing access to information, these regulations are the proverbial double-edged sword.
   ======================================
   sharoo
   [url="http://www.hipaaguide.net"]hipaa[/url]

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this