Confidentiality on the information highway: balancing the needs of individual patients and society.
State and federal agencies, professional associations and business coalitions are actively promoting the development of regional or statewide health database organizations (HDOs). One of the key missions of HDOs is the public release of aggregated healthcare data and analyses to facilitate improved patient care. In 1992 and 1993 a committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine studied the implications of HDO formation in a landmark report. The committee's recommendations on how to assure accuracy and completeness of data, minimize potential harm from released data and guarantee appropriate protections for individually identifiable data are summarized and interpreted in the following article.
Donaldson
M S
MS
Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC 20418.
D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016494:Computer Security / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D003219:Confidentiality; D003628:Database Management Systems; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States