The Prevention of Non-Consensual Access to "Confidential" Health-Care Information in Cyberspace

Authors

• Howard L. Steele Jr.

Abstract

The latter half of the twentieth century has seen the decline of the industrial revolution and the rapid transition into an information explosion that has continued to expand at an exponential rate. Unlike the political upheavals of days gone by, this revolution appears to have the potential to dramatically change our society. For example, the advent of the computer and its application in the healthcare setting has changed the face of medicine. Today is a day of miracle drugs, laser surgeries, and telemedicine - all of which found their genesis in computers. Despite the clear advantages created by the ever-expanding realm of new technology, such knowledge sometimes comes with a price.

A byproduct of the information revolution is the easy accessibility to information of all sorts. In the healthcare context, patients' confidential medical information is being stored more on hard drives and video cassettes than in the traditional hard copy form. Furthermore, with the increasing use of the "information superhighway" for the transferal of this information, patient confidentiality could easily fall by the wayside. Since this information is easily, quickly, and cheaply replicated, there is a greater potential for third parties obtaining this information via legal or illegal means. For example, when U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez first ran for office in 1992, her hospital records, which detailed an attempted suicide the year before, were downloaded and faxed to newspapers and television stations. After running the election, Representative Velazquez stated that "I had no power to stop it. I felt violated."

In part II of this article, I will discuss the background of medical records privacy in cyberspace and the media by which this privacy is most often breached. Part III will address how the status quo has attempted to deal with this problem in cyberspace, in addition to some possible alternatives to the current methods of operation. Part IV will suggest some preventative measures for hospitals and individuals, in light of the law's inability to keep pace with technology.

Recommended Citation

Howard L. Steele, The Prevention of Non-Consensual Access to "Confidential" Health-Care Information in Cyberspace, 1 Computer L. Rev. & Tech. J. 101 (1997)