Electronic medical records: a threat to privacy?Summary: Electronic medical databases and the ability to store medical records in them have made our lives easier in many ways and riskier in others. others. The main risk they pose is the security of our personal data if it is placed on an insecure medium. What happens if someone gets their hands on your information and uses it in a way you don't approve of? Can you stop them? To keep your information secure and maintain trust in this invaluable technology, the question of access must be resolved. Guidelines are needed to establish who has access and how they can obtain it. This is necessary for information security, to preserve privacy and to maintain existing benefits. Imagine a seriously ill person in a hospital bed. Tubes and wires connect it to whirring machines like medical jumper cables; they lie almost lifeless, except for the barely perceptible vitality injected into them by the system of machines we call life support. Take a moment to think about the roles computers play in this scenario. Now imagine the scene and the patient's condition without a computer. It's easy. There's nothing: no slow breathing, no whirring of machines, no IV dripping, no beeping of a heart monitor. Not only would the person likely be dead, but everything from the reclining bed to the nurse call button to the life support system relies on computers. Computers have completely proliferated in the world of medicine. They are used to monitor vital signs, operate artificial hearts, and compile and store medical histories. Although not directly linked to our well-being, the latter use is of utmost importance. Today, the use of medical databases and computers... middle of paper ...... Berkeley National Laboratory Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues in Science Project 2. Press release from the White House, Wednesday December 20, 2000 on www. cdt.org/privacy/medical/001220whitehouse.shtml; published by the Center for Technology and Democracy3. www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/msjama/articles/vol_285/no_13/jms0404014.htm#ref3; Journal of the American Medical Association.4.www.techtv.com/cybercrime/privacy/story/0,23008,3320805,00.html; a website with convincing facts corroborated by other sources5. Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire. Published by Prentice Hall, 1997. p 616.www.aclu.org/action/medregs/readstories.html; medical privacy anecdotes from newspapers collected by the ACLU7. Personal communication: F. Makedon, class discussion, September 20018.www.netreach.net/~wmanning/otadig.htm; part of a larger website dedicated to medical privacy issues