Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Sunday, August 09, 2009

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ: Do you now or have you ever taken any prescription medications for psychiatric disorders, stress, anxiety or depression? Do you trust that information will be kept confidential and that you're safe in the knowledge that no one but you, your physician, your pharmacist and yourself know about it? Do you avoid using your insurance for some of these meds just so even your insurance company doesn't know you're on one of these medications? Well, it seems you've been the only one keeping the secret. Recent articles in major newspapers are pointing to the freely bought and sold personal information of all of us when it comes to pharmaceuticals.

The Wonders of Data Mining

Computers have made it possible to find just about anything companies need to market their services and products. The software is called "data mining" and it can dig deeply into any retail sale to identify whatever is needed or seen as marginally useful. Of course, those electronic hotel room keys you so casually throw away or into the containers at the front desk, too, contain a magnet strip that has more information than your family garbage. Why rummage through trash bins when all you need are those bits of plastic and a reader? They give your name, credit card, possibly driver's license and car registration numbers and even your Social Security numbers. Shred them when you get home. You may be seen as paranoid or obsessive-compulsive, but it seems it's in the service of your security.

Remember, once something is in a database, it's going to grow like Topsy in its availability to other databases, legal or stolen from company computers. Send it over the internet and it is even more vulnerable. Didn't someone hack both the Vatican and the Pentagon? When the new regulations regarding patient records come to be in five years, all physicians will be pushed toward maintaining computerized records and, if they avail themselves of "cloud computing" (storage on someone else's server), the prospects of abuse increase even more. Here's a link to a nice explanation of cloud computing: http://tinyurl.com/2qjapp and it will take you to other info, as well. So let's think of hackers, blackmailers and marketers here. Seems everyone has to be hacker saavy in more ways than just knowing the term. Yet another way to begin to provide jobs in a poor economy.

The Records of the Rich and Famous

Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears, Maria Shriver, George Clooney and Nadya Suleman (the Octomom) all had their medical records' privacy breached. Of course, this was by hospital personnel and physicians, but it was available. If any of them went online and began searching for their medical conditions or medications and they happened to click on certain sites, information about them would be quickly grabbed, stored and held for sale. A NY Times article recently indicated that "since 2003, more than 45,000 complaints have been filed…by people who said their medical privacy was violated."

You may not be rich and famous, but your information is golden. Is it your's exclusively or do those forms you sign in the physician's office or at the hospital give them the right to use this information?

Usually, it does protect you, but there may be instances when you've signed some rights away. Take the case of the man who had a medical procedure where they used his blood and then found he had a unique quality in his genes.  They took that information, got a patent and now he doesn't own even this bit of information in his DNA. This is an extreme case.   But what about the surgical forms that indicate they may use photographs, video or whatever from your treatment in teaching, reseach or any purpose they see fit.  Do you ever think you wouldn't want to be on a huge screen in front of a group of strangers having your "case" discussed?  You've signed that privacy away, too, unless you strike out that portion of the release.

As the saying goes, "Let the buyer beware."

http://www.drfarrell.net

Source: NY Times, Sunday, August 9, 2009, "And You Thought a Prescription Was Private"

Patricia A. Farrell, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

Patricia A. Farrell, Ph.D., LLC

Englewood Cliffs, NJ

201-676-0478