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IEEE-USA Advocates Protection of Personally
Identifiable
Health Information, and Development of
Technology-Based
National Health Information Network
WASHINGTON (18 July 2005)
— IEEE-USA is concerned that the Department of
Homeland Security’s (DHS) authority to access
and analyze personal information could lead to
privacy breaches of one’s personally
identifiable health information.
“We believe DHS authority to access and
disseminate personally identifiable health data
should be restricted unless adequate controls
are put in place to ensure the security and
confidentiality of that data,” according a
position adopted 17 June by the IEEE-USA Board
of Directors.
IEEE-USA recommends, among other things, that
DHS implement procedures to ensure that
personally identifiable health information is
not inadvertently used to discriminate against
someone in employment and insurance; and to
establish accountability and significant
penalties for the misuse or abuse of such
information.
In a related position, IEEE-USA advocates
establishing a National Health Information
Network (NHIN) to take advantage of cutting-edge
networking technologies, as well as provide
secure and reliable access to, and sharing of,
health information. The NHIN should not
compromise the security and privacy of one’s
personal health records, according to IEEE-USA.
The organization also stated that NHIN could
reduce medical errors resulting from
insufficient information regarding a patient’s
history, prescribed medications and current
condition; provide fast access to health data in
an emergency situation; and curb rising
healthcare costs by eliminating much of the
paper-based processing of patient records and
insurance claims.
These positions
—
“Homeland Security Operations and Use of
Personally Identifiable Health Information” and
“National Health Information Network, With
Emphasis on Security and Privacy Issues”
—
were developed by the IEEE-USA Medical
Technology Policy Committee. They are available
at
www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/index.html#mtp.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE.
It was created in 1973 to advance the public
good and promote the careers and public policy
interests of the more than 220,000 technology
professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE.
The IEEE is the world's largest technical
professional society. For more information, go
to
www.ieeeusa.org.
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, DC 20036-5104
Phone: 202-785-0017, Fax: 202-785-0835
Last Update:
15 May 2007
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter,
p.mccarter@ieee.org
|
