February 2000 MedBytes: Medical Records Privacy



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February's "MedBytes" focuses on Web sites covering medical records privacy.

National Coalition for Patient Rights
Visit  www.nationalcpr.org  for links to news releases, a list of strategies to protect patient privacy, and real stories about what happens when private medical information becomes public. The National Coalition for Patient Rights is a nonprofit organization of medical professionals and concerned citizens dedicated to restoring confidentiality to health care.

Electronic Privacy Information Center
This site at www.epic.org/privacy/medical features news about medical records privacy, including links to information about proposed federal regulations protecting the privacy of electronically stored medical records.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, at https://www.eff.org/, alerts users to recent legislation affecting medical records privacy.

Health Privacy Project
Go to www.healthprivacy.org to find links to recent legislation, the latest news, and other resources in relation to medical records privacy. The Health Privacy Project is dedicated to raising public awareness of the importance of ensuring health privacy to improve health care access and quality, on both individual and community levels. The project has just released a publication entitled "Exposed: A Health Privacy Primer for Consumers," which includes basic information on how health information is used and disclosed, relevant federal and state laws, polling data, issues of special concern, and action items. The primer is available in PDF format on the project's Web site at www.healthprivacy.org.

American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
AHIMA's site includes a link to AHIMA's statement on privacy, confidentiality, and security of health records.

Making your mistakes a matter of record
On a different note, here is a site focusing on physician privacy in regard to reporting medical errors. To read about reporting medical errors and how this might affect you and your practice, go to the site for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's link to research on medical errors at  www.ahcpr.gov. You'll find links to fact sheets, reports, and news releases on medical errors, including the release entitled "To Err is Human" by the Institute of Medicine.

TMA's New Web Site
Visit TMA's new Web site at  www.texmed.org   for your own personal page, featuring information tailored to your specialty or particular area of interest. You'll also have access to an online medical research center that will enable you to search for information on any medical topic through credible sources designated by the TMA Library under the direction of the Council on Public Health. Sign on to the "Members Only" section and set up your personal page before February 29, and you'll get a chance to win your choice of an iMac or Dell home computer system.

MedBytes is a quick look at new, or newly discovered, Web sites of interest to Texas physicians. The column also highlights features of the TMA Web site at www.texmed.org. If you know of some cool medical sites or have questions about how to use the TMA Web site, email  Erin Prather. Publication of information about Web sites in this column is not be to considered an endorsement or approval by the Texas Medical Association of the sites or sponsors, or of any products or services involved.

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