title: Medical records. Enhancing privacy, preserving the common good.
abstract: Personal medical information is now bought and sold on the open market. Companies use it to make hiring and firing decisions and to identify customers for new products. The justification for providing such access to medical information is that doing so benefits the public by securing public safety, controlling costs, and supporting medical research. And individuals have supposedly consented to it. But we can achieve the common goods while better protecting privacy by making institutional changes in the way information is maintained and protected.
mesh_terms: D016494:Computer Security / Q000592:standards*; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D032962:Consent Forms; D030881:Disclosure; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D030661:Genetic Privacy; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D035846:Law Enforcement; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D033283:Patient Access to Records; D028701:Patient Rights; D018907:Privacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D028743:Professional Misconduct; D011634:Public Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012922:Social Change; D012935:Social Justice; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States