Medical Record Privacy In Peril

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine, warns that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could drastically alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient records.
The authors are proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records to improve care and help individuals make smarter health decisions. But their concern is that the medical profession and policymakers have not begun to understand the implications of companies like Microsoft and Google becoming the hosts for patient information in their data centers.
Today, most patient records remain within the health system. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is the main law that regulates personal data handling and patient privacy.
Microsoft and Google have recently begun offering web-based personal health records. But as noted in the article, these companies are not bound HIPPA.