Tag Archives: medical privacy

“The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual” 1963 quote from Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

I moderated a panel last week for Xconomy that was focused on consumer-oriented healthcare information technology.  The panel included 2 hospital chief information officers (one current, one former) and two healthcare IT company executives.  The panel itself was preceded by a presentation from Dr. Kevin Patrick, a preventive medicine specialist at UC San Diego and director of the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.  Dr. Patrick talked about many things, but among them was a program he is leading that relies on Facebook to support individuals’ weight loss goals.  By engaging ones friends and friends-of-friends, goes the theory, one can more effectively stay on track with a weight loss program and work to prevent the scourge of Type II diabetes, among other problems.  Dr. Patrick hypothesized that this approach could work with other health-related areas beyond weight management.

In fact, there are already companies trying to cash in on this approach, including … (read the rest)