If patients are seeking the
by admin on Jul.28, 2010, under Uncategorized
If patients are seeking the next best thing to a house call, emailing your doctor could be just that.
Unfortunately, with the growth of phishing, malware, and spyware, accidental sending or forwarding a patient?s personal/private health information (PHI) could result in that identifying information being used in various sorts of fraud.
Protecting a patient’s PHI is a deep-rooted tenet within the medical profession. Laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ensure that medical facilities and clinicians protect their patient?s PHI.
In a 2005 study 70% of Americans are concerned that their PHI could be disclosed as a result of weak data security (4). With each technological advance, both the medical field and patients must be aware of the severity of improper use of PHI. According to the Heath Privacy Project, a patient?s rights information site, one in five patients are victims of improper disclosure (5).
In spite of all these risks, patients continue to utilize email and the internet in order to seek out answers to various personal health questions.
Online resources such as WebMD?s Symptom Checker provides possible answers to patient maladies such as why their left leg is swollen.
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