Groups urge legislating medical-record safeguards: Computerization causes confidentiality concerns

Abstract

Technology itself might not be the enemy, but its potential power has prompted concern among medical professionals, federal legislators and others, about how easily enemies of patient privacy could obtain and misuse computerized medical records. The American Medical Association (AMA) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), two groups uncomfortable with the prospect of universal, computerized medical records, have testified separately before two different congressional panels in recent months, urging that privacy be protected as more powerful technology becomes commonplace.