Patient and Study Participant Rights to Privacy in Journal Publication

Personal health information is defined as identifiable data related to the past, present, or future health status of an individual. Personal health information has been considered protected health information, which is governed by ethical principles and laws to shield against intrusions into an individual ’s rights to privacy. However, rapid growth in the volume of electronic health records, access to other health information, and increasing use of personal health data by artificial intelligence, social media, technology, and other companies are threatening the traditional tenets of privacy protect ions for personal health information. As Gostin and colleagues have warned, “Individuals’ health data are now solicited, aggregated, analyzed, shared, and sold in ways poorly understood and largely unregulated.” Clearly, new or enhanced legislative privacy safeguards are needed to protect pers onal health information.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research