Wednesday, May 05, 2010

EMR: Homespun Privacy?

Sometimes, two seemingly disparate items hit my radar simultaneously, and it's interesting to see if there's a "connection" of some kind. Of course, some of these are more obvious than others, as in this case.

My friend Holly R sent me the link to a new, free program that organizes and stores your medical info on your computer. We've seen that on-line services like Google let you centralize your personal health data, but they also raise (legitimate) privacy concerns. On the other hand:

"HeyDoc! ... lets you organize detailed data about your health. But all of it is stored on your computer. It remains under your control. You can use it however you'd like."

That last part may be the most important: "You can use it however you'd like."

When you control the data, you get to make those decisions. Contrast that concept with:

"Vice President Joe Biden, touting the importance of electronic health records, on Tuesday announced $220 million in grants for 15 communities to pave the way for wide-scale use of health information technology."

These programs may sound similar to HeyDoc!, but there's at least one big difference:

"Under the government policies, patients will not be able to opt out of having an electronic health record, said Sue Blevin, president of the Institute for Health Freedom."

Given how easily credit and other information has been compromised, that seems a legitimate concern. I'd feel a lot more sanguine about this idea if it weren't so Orwellian. This administration seems quite comfortable forcing people to toe the line (cf: Individual Mandate). I thought they were "pro-choice."
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