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Article: Medical records and privacy: empirical effects of legislation.(A Memorial to Alice Hersh)
- Article from:
- Health Services Research
- Article date:
- April 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Health Research and Educational Trust. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Growing public concern about privacy in the computer era is engendering legislative proposals to strengthen existing confidentiality protections for patient medical records. In this policy environment, questions arise about how to balance societal values respecting individual privacy - essential to ensure patient trust in the care process - while at the same time allowing access to information that is essential for scientific research to improve health and health care (Congressional Research Service [CRS] 1998). There is little empirical evidence to inform these policy considerations.
Proposed individual privacy protections affecting research fall into two ...