Thanks for the mention. Our software has also been on 60MinutesII and the recent Nova on BioTerrorism.
At 10:55 AM 11/29/2001 -0500, Wayne Wilson wrote: >Dave Forslund's work, including a minimal reference to the Sourceforge >site and the mention of free, got a favorable writeup in the Nov. 19, >Infoweek. Here is the URL: > >http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011116S0004 > >Congratulations Dave! (So how come the article ends with a quote from >Sandia :) This is a LONG story, so I'll make it short. The results quoted in the first paragraph of the article did not happen, but were claimed by Sandia. Sandia is part of a collaboration between NM DOH, UNM, LANL, and Sandia in this area. They have some bioterrorism experts that are quite focal. We have been developing all the software, and Sandia has been hosting the server. This will probably change. >In that same issue is another article on how the 9/11 terrorism should be >a wakeup call to health care IT to get's it data sharing act >together. The initial focus is all wrong in my opinion, focusing on >patient privacy. Here is a quote from: > >http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011116S0007 > >" "Bioterrorism was never taken into account with HIPAA," Liss says. >"Putting the brakes on information that gets shared in the middle of a >bioterrorist attack doesn't make any sense. We need to make bioterrorism >the top priority and deal with privacy next." > >On Oct. 23, more than 30 health-care organizations wrote to Health and >Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asking for urgent changes to HIPAA >patient privacy rules. They said the current rules would, among other >things, hamper information sharing needed for medical research. The groups >most strongly oppose two provisions: requiring patient consent before any >information can be shared or disclosed by health-care providers for tasks >from care to prescriptions to billing, and restricting patient information >from being used in research." > >I am worried that the 9/11 attacks are being used as a blanket call to end >privacy, with no real analysis of weakness's. >For example, privacy is fully protected in Dave's New Mexico public health >system and that was used in the same article as an example of what should >be done! I agree, but dealing with consent is a big deal and a major obstacle. IBut, i is actually fairly easy to deal with under certain circumstances. In Pittsburgh, the chief complaint and discharge data is set to a central location (purged of patient identifiers) without having to go through IRB approval because it is part of normal healthcare. I don't know which part of HIPAA this falls under, however. Another way around this is for a State to declare more things "reportable". This is another HIPAA exception. Dave
