Stephanie M. Lee reports: 23andMe bills itself as a company that “democratizes personal genetics” for the world. And that description’s not necessarily all that far off: For $99, customers spit into an at-home kit, mail it in, and then go online to learn about their ancestral origins and far-flung relatives. But consumers also get their…
Category: Healthcare
UK: Insurers using subject access requests to see medical information
The Information Commissioner has been considering the emerging practice of insurance companies obtaining medical records by using patients’ subject access rights. We recognise that insurance companies may have a genuine need to review medical information about its customers when providing policies like life and critical illness cover. To enable this, the Access to Medical Reports…
White House Releases Draft Privacy Principles for the Precision Medicine Initiative
Jennifer S. Geetter and Chelsea M. Rutherford of McDermott Will & Emery write: Six months after the Precision Medicine Initiative’s (Initiative’s) debut, the White House has released a working draft of proposed privacy and trust principles (the Principles) to govern future design and development efforts for the national research cohort envisioned by the Initiative. This cohort will be a…
KR: [Editorial] Patient records leak
From an editorial in today’s Korea Herald: Medical information on nearly 90 percent of Korean population was sold as big data to a multination firm, raising concerns about safekeeping of the highly confidential information. A company specializing in developing medical fees settlement programs used by hospitals and the Korea Pharmaceutical Information Center — which distributed free…