WAVX OT & Uncensored (WAVX)

[brant_point]

CM

Happy Birthday.

Here is a NY Times editorial opinion from someone in your neighborhood. Perhaps you can set her straight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/lweb10online.html?src=linkedin&pagewanted=print

December 10, 2008
Letter
The Push to Build an Electronic Health System
To the Editor:

Re “Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe Even in Your Computer” (front page, Dec. 6):

There is a real disconnect between the ease of hacking home computers and the federal push to build a national electronic health system.

Health-related information technology systems pose a tremendous new and unrecognized threat to the privacy of personal information.

Cubbyhole databases and encryption are not widely used, authentication and identity-proofing are terrible, and hospitals allow thousands of employees to see hundreds of thousands of patient records.

Health care systems do not use the new “smart” security and consent technologies so we can limit access to those directly involved in our care.

Why rush to require that medical records — including all our sensitive health, prescription, financial, genetic and demographic information — go into unsafe electronic systems that lack ironclad security?

Unlike identity theft, the theft of our personal health information can’t be fixed.

The theft of health data will limit our children’s and grandchildren’s chances for jobs, credit and opportunities in life.

Deborah C. Peel
Austin, Tex., Dec. 8, 2008

The writer, a medical doctor, is the founder and chairwoman of Patient Privacy Rights, a nonprofit organization.