Module Five : Readings

There is a vast collection of readings on the topics of data privacy. Please read these two selections, paying particular attention to ways that electronic databases can both provide solutions in public health analysis yet increase risk of breaching the privacy of personal information.

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Reading One:
The following selection is from the Public Health Data Standards Consortium of the National Center for Health Statistics. It presents an overview of the major dilemmas of electronic information for public health use, including opportunities and risks:

Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D., LL.D. (Hon.) and James G. Hodge, Jr., J.D., LL.M, "Balancing individual privacy and communal uses of health information," from the NCHS Workshop on the Implications of HIPAA's Administrative Simplification Provisions for Public Health and Health Services Research, 1998, found at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/otheract/phdsc/presenters/gostin.htm

or from the MACH 2010 course site (Reading One)

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Reading Two:
The following selection is from a book published by the National Academy of Sciences on Computer-based Records (CBRs). This selection summarizes the major findings of a national expert committee on CBRs.

Read the "Summary" section of : Institute of Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Improving the Patient Record. The computer-based patient record : an essential technology for health care / Committee on Improving the Patient Record, Division of Health Care Services, Institute of Medicine ; Don E. Detmer, Elaine B. Steen, and Richard S. Dick, editors. - found at http://bob.nap.edu/html/computer/summary.html

or from the MACH 2010 course site (Reading Two)