Warning on storage of health records

New York Times, April 17, 2008

Two researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient information. The authors are longtime proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records, but their concern is that the medical profession and policy makers have not begun to grapple with the implications of large companies becoming the hosts for vast stores of patient information. The arrival of corporate entrants into health records promises to bring "a seismic change" in the control and stewardship of patient information, according to their research.