Health Privacy
About health privacy, World Privacy Forum key health privacy resources
The World Privacy Forum is extremely active in health privacy, with a long and successful track record of work in this area. We have done groundbreaking work in the area of medical identity theft, as well as substantive analysis and education on critical privacy aspects of health data such as medical research, genomics, and many other issues.
Some of our most frequently accessed health privacy resources include:
* A Patient’s Guide to HIPAA
* Medical Identity Theft Page (resources, reports, more)
* Health privacy tagged materials
* HIPAA tagged materials
* Electronic Health Records tagged materials
* Common Rule and Human Subject Research Protection tagged materials
* Genetic privacy tagged materials
We have many more publications and resources. For a full list of topics and publications, see our key issues page.
See below for health privacy news and content by date.
WPF Comments on Genomic Data Sharing Policy for sharing, for research purposes, of large-scale human and nonhuman genomic data (NIH) Background: The National Institutes of Health published a draft Data Sharing Policy for human and non-human genomic data. The sharing is for research purposes. The World Privacy Forum comments focus on human genomic privacy. Our
San Diego, CA — The World Privacy Forum is very pleased to announce the publication of a major undertaking, the complete update and revision to our landmark Patient’s Guide to HIPAA. The new guide reflects the changes in HIPAA that took effect September 23, 2013. The Patient’s Guide to HIPAA is a landmark publication because it is the first and to our knowledge — only complete guide written expressly for patients. It offers a roadmap through the thicket of dense health privacy laws and rules that many patients have questions about. The purpose of this guide is to help patients understand how to make health privacy laws work to protect their privacy. Longtime World Privacy Forum contributor Bob Gellman is primary author of the Guide, including the new version. Begin exploring the update at the HIPAA Guide Home: https://www.worldprivacyforum.org/2013/09/hipaaguidehome/ .
WPF’s new interactive map identifies Health Information Exchanges in California. A Health Information Exchange, or HIE, is technology that enables the electronic movement of health-related information among health care providers and others. HIEs are an increasingly popular way for hospitals, pharmacies, labs, and emergency room physicians to share patient information. HIEs can exchange records across one hospital, across multiple hospitals in a region, or across a whole state. If your health information is being shared through an HIE, your lab test results, medications, medical history, or other clinical information related to your health care may be included in the sharing. See more about HIEs and our California HIE Map here.
This FAQ, glossary, and tipsheet about Health Information Exchanges is designed to work in tandem with our HIE map and directory of California HIEs, available here. If you have questions about HIPAA beyond those answered here, please see our extensive resource, A Patient’s Guide to HIPAA.
June 07, 2013 Washington, D. C. — Pam Dixon testified at a US Federal Trade Commission workshop event regarding the challenges seniors and their caregivers have in detecting, preventing, and handling the aftermath of medical identity theft. Dixon discussed how the crime impacts seniors in larger proportions than other parts of the population, and discussed
