Updating a story reported previously, Sheryl Spithoff reports: The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario is launching an investigation in the wake of a Toronto Star story about the sale of patient medical records. U.S. health data giant IQVIA says it has the potential to access the health records of five million…
Category: Healthcare
Medical-record software companies are selling your health data
Sheryl Spithoff reports: There’s a booming business in patient medical records and up to five million Ontarians are part of that boom, whether they know it or not. As doctors and pharmacies across the province have switched from paper charts to electronic medical records (EMRs), a company saw a business opportunity. One of the companies…
Patients, health data experts accuse Facebook of exposing personal info
Emily Birnbaum reports: A group of patients and health data experts is accusing Facebook of misleading users about how their personal health information can be manipulated and exposed without patients’ explicit permission. In a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint released publicly on Tuesday, the group alleges that Facebook prompts its users to join online medical support groups under the guise that they are…
Ex-Vanderbilt doctor, accused of snooping in ex-wife’s medical records, sues hospital for not defending him
Brett Kelman reports: A former Vanderbilt University Medical Center doctor who is accused of using his hospital privileges to snoop into the private medical records of his ex-wife has filed a lawsuit against the hospital for refusing to defend him in court. Dr. Douglas Burka, who was a surgical resident at Vanderbilt from 2010 to 2012,…