At least the claim is that patients can opt out at any time. They could also take a page from VA and only submit lab values along with hashed IDs to the central system so that the only way to know who the person is would be to go to the system sending in the data. VA has centralized databases for monitoring WBCs weekly for each patient on clozapine, but no one can be identified by looking at any data in the central database. The same hash is generated at each facility (the hash algorithm must be kept secure) so the same patient's data at different sites can be combined centrally. Only by taking the hashed ID at the central system to a local system that sent the data and has the association between the hash and the patient's ID can the patient's identity be known.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nancy Anthracite Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 7:24 AM To: hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Hardhats-members] Now this is scary! NYC Department of Health is asking to mandate that all of the city's labs report A1C Hemoglobin values into a patient registry of Diabetics in New York. This is one of the things that concerns me about all of this enthusiasm for a Health Data Repositories. You may be told your information is private, but then once it is stored like this, you can loose control of it for the "public good". This article does not suggest this is data they want is scrubbed of personal identifiers. This is far too "Big Brother" for me, and this doesn't even involve a HDR yet. I feel things are a little safer if the nationwide network were a database to where patient information might be found if the patient wants it to be found. http://govhealthit.com/article89548-07-13-05-Web -- Nancy Anthracite ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_idt77&alloc_id492&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
