Privacy

  • Read more: Another Blow to Tort Reform in Florida: Statute Allowing Defendants in Medical Malpractice Suits to Hold Ex Parte Interviews with the Aggrieved Patient’s Care Providers Declared Unconstitutional
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    Another Blow to Tort Reform in Florida: Statute Allowing Defendants in Medical Malpractice Suits to Hold Ex Parte Interviews with the Aggrieved Patient’s Care Providers Declared Unconstitutional

    By Alex Stein STEIN on Medical Malpractice has recently published a survey of noteworthy court decisions in the field for 2017. This survey includes an important decision, Weaver v. Myers, 229 So.3d 1118 (Fla. 2017), that voided Florida statute allowing defendants in medical malpractice suits to hold ex parte interviews with the aggrieved patient’s care providers….

  • Read more: Sharing Data for 21st Century Cures – Two Steps Forward…
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    Sharing Data for 21st Century Cures – Two Steps Forward…

    By Mary A. Majumder, Christi J. Guerrini, Juli M. Bollinger, Robert Cook-Deegan, and Amy L. McGuire The 21st Century Cures Act was passed with support from both sides of the aisle (imagine that!) and signed into law by then-President Obama late last year. This ambitious legislation drives action in areas as diverse as drug and…

  • Read more: Hormonal Treatment to Trans Children – But what if?
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    Hormonal Treatment to Trans Children – But what if?

    By Maayan Sudai A few weeks ago I ran across this BuzzFeed post, telling the story of Corey Mason, a 14 year old male to female Trans teenager who was filmed getting her first pack of estrogen hormones. Her mom Erica, who uploaded the video to Facebook and YouTube, spurred a social-media discussion on the…

  • Read more: Ebola and Privacy
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    Ebola and Privacy

    By Michele Goodwin As the nation braces for possibly more Ebola cases, civil liberties should be considered, including patient privacy.  As news media feature headline-grabbing stories about quarantines,  let’s think about the laws governing privacy in healthcare. Despite federal laws enacted to protect patient privacy, the Ebola scare brings the vulnerability of individuals and the…

  • Read more: Apple’s mHealth Rules Fear to Tread Where Our Privacy Laws Fall Short
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    Apple’s mHealth Rules Fear to Tread Where Our Privacy Laws Fall Short

    By Nicolas Terry On September 9 Apple is hosting its ‘Wish We Could Say More’ event. In the interim we will be deluged with usually uninformed speculation about the new iPhone, an iWatch wearable, and who knows what else. What we do know, because Apple announced it back in June, is that iOS 8, Apple’s mobile…

  • Read more: Anonymity is Not Privacy (and Why it Matters)
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    Anonymity is Not Privacy (and Why it Matters)

    Anonymity is not just an aspect of privacy and recognizing their difference reveals a powerful and poorly understood set of legal tools for facilitating and controlling the production of public goods.  This is the central claim of my newest article (SSRN draft available here). Three examples illustrate the scope of the under-explored ways in which…

  • Read more: DNA Art
    Article

    DNA Art

    By Katharine Van Tassel According to an article in the NYT, an artist has collected DNA samples from litter on sidewalks, such as chewing gum and cigarette butts, and used those samples to extract and sequence DNA that she then used to make computer models of their owners’ faces. She then printed 3-D masks that…

  • Read more: Filing a Complaint with HHS About a HIPAA Violation: A Warning About “How (Not) To”
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    Filing a Complaint with HHS About a HIPAA Violation: A Warning About “How (Not) To”

    By Leslie Francis I posted in June about the fact that my social security number (and possibly other personal information) had been downloaded to an unknown site in Eastern Europe as part of a large security breach from the Utah state health department.  In connection with that breach, I have filed a complaint with the…

  • Read more: ONC Backs Off Rule-making For Governance of Health Information Exchange
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    ONC Backs Off Rule-making For Governance of Health Information Exchange

    By Leslie Francis Establishment of the infrastructure needed for the efficient, accurate, and secure exchange of health information is a crucial piece of improving care in the US.  Exchange fosters the ready availability of information, reducing redundancy and hopefully improving care quality.  To this end, proposals for a National Health Information Network were highly touted…