Privacy versus portability

Despite HIPAA regulations, the push for more fungible and liquid health information is on, according to the the Center for Democracy and Technology. The CDT claims that medical and health data needs to flow freely if advances in research and development, as well as treatment, are to be realized. "CDT is urging Congress to hold hearings on a broad range of privacy and security issues in health IT, and we plan to informally gather together a group of diverse health IT stakeholders over the next several months to identify the issues that need to be addressed and possibly come up with some consensus solutions," said Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project that is under the auspices of the CDT.