Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The change from paper-based to electronic medical records has the potential to lower
the costs and improve the quality of medical care by making it quicker and cheaper for
information about patients to be shared among nurses, physicians, and other caregivers.
The US government has been promoting the conversion to electronic medical records
as one way to rein in the rapid increase in health care costs. The Health Information
Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act calls for doctors and
hospitals to move from paper records to electronic records by 2015.
However, once an individual's entire medical history is consolidated in a database
accessible by many, it can be more difficult to control how that information is dissemi-
nated, with potentially significant consequences. An employer may choose to pass over
a job candidate who has had serious medical problems [44]. A woman who has success-
fully completed a treatment program for drug addiction may be discriminated against if
information about her former drug use is revealed.
In November 2003, Florida state law enforcement officials seized the medical
records of radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, as part of an investigation to determine
whether Limbaugh had illegally obtained prescription pain medications from several
doctors. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief in partial
support of Limbaugh, arguing that law enforcement officials acted improperly in ob-
taining a warrant that allowed them to seize all of Limbaugh's medical records, not just
those relevant to the criminal investigation [45].
TiVo, Inc. is a well-known manufacturer of digital video recorders. TiVo provides a
service that allows its subscribers to more easily record programs they are interested
in watching later. For example, with a single command a subscriber can instruct the
TiVo to record every episode of a TV series. TiVo collects detailed information about
the viewing habits of its users. Because the system monitors the activities of the users
second by second, its data are more valuable than those provided by other services. For
example, TiVo's records show that 66 percent of the ads shown during primetime on
broadcast networks are skipped [46].
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cookie
is a file placed on your computer's hard drive by a Web server. The file contains
information about your visits to a Web site. Cookies can contain login names and
passwords, product preferences, and the contents of virtual shopping carts. Web sites use
cookies to provide you with personalized services, such as custom Web pages. Instead of
asking you to type in the same information multiple times, a Web site can retrieve that
information from a cookie. Most Web sites do not ask for permission before creating
a cookie on your hard drive. You can configure your Web browser to alert you when a
cookie is being placed on your computer, or you can set your Web browser to refuse to
accept any cookies. However, some Web sites cannot be accessed by browsers that block
cookies.
