Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — More than 9 in 10 Americans believe medical privacy is a right and their health data should not be for sale, a new survey by the American Medical Association shows.
The survey revealed concerns about privacy protections and confusion about who can access personal health information.
Almost 75% of patients were concerned about protecting the privacy of personal health data, but only 20% were aware of the companies and individuals who had access to their data.
This concern has only been heightened by the recent decision of the Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v Wade, because a lack of data protection can put patients and doctors in legal jeopardy in states that criminalize abortion.
According to the survey, patients are most comfortable with their doctors and hospitals having access to their personal health information, while they are least comfortable with social media sites, employers and technology companies.
“Patients trust that doctors are committed to protecting patient privacy – a crucial element for honest health discussions,” said Dr. Jack Resneck Jr., president of the American Medical Association (AMA). “However, many digital health technologies also lack basic privacy safeguards. More needs to be done by policymakers and developers to protect patients’ health information.
“Most health apps are either unregulated or underregulated, requiring close and long-term policy initiatives and robust enforcement by federal and state regulators,” Resneck said in an AMA news release. “Patient trust and privacy is being undermined as technology companies and data brokers gain access to unintelligible health data without patient knowledge or consent and share that information with third parties, including law enforcement.”
According to the survey, a large majority of patients demand accountability, transparency and control in relation to the privacy of their medical records. Fully 94% of patients want companies to be held legally accountable for how their health data is used.
Patients share the same sentiment (93%) about the need for health app developers to be open about how their services use and distribute individual patient data. Patients want control over the information companies collect about them and how it is used to prevent unauthorized access to and use of personal health data.
Here are other specific takeaways from the survey:
Patients also want doctors and hospitals equipped with the technology to scrutinize apps for security and privacy features.
Visit the ACLU for more on medical privacy.
Source: American Medical Association, news release, July 25, 2022
