November 24, 2004
Trading Privacy for Health
An article "Emerging Technology" in the December issue of Discover argues that digitizing patient records exposes you to prying eyes but could also save your life. It looks at the potential health benefits and privacy concerns associated with computerizing medical records and storing them in searchable electronic databases.
Recently the Mayo Clinic and IBM announced that they would collaborate to create the Mayo Clinical Life Sciences System, which is "not so much about digitizing records as it is about establishing new ways to get a big-picture view across thousands or millions of records."
Mayo has been using digital patient records for nearly 10 years, and they have more than 4.4 million on file. The IBM database would allow researchers to quickly conduct "horizontal analysis," which searches for statistically relevant patterns in a vast database of information. Previously, this type of research could take up to a year to complete. Another goal of the datbase would be to make a qualitative change in research, which would allow researchers to pursue more "hunches" and "wild cards," Discover reports. This will generate new knowledge, as opposed to being used to verify things that are already known.
The article argues that despite the potential to improve care, computerizing medical records could threaten patient privacy, as the information could be accessed by prospective employers and insurance companies. Although researchers and physicians would need special authorization to access the Mayo database and the project would conceal the identity of patients during horizontal searches, concerns need to be addressed.
Posted by rsk at November 24, 2004 08:42 AM