do you care about your medical information going missing?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/08/04/usb-medical-files-stolen684.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a16:g4:r2:c0:b0


some ontario patients data on name, admission and discharge date and procedure they underweant went missing.

would you care if your did?

hell would you care if someone had any of your medical data?

Deank wrote:hell would you care if someone had any of your medical data?

Someone does and there's lot of legal mumbojumbo to deal with it:
http://www.gov.mb.ca/health/phia/index.html

I would be very, very angry if mine went missing. It's more than just X patient had X procedure done information. OHIP #'s, addresses, sensitive info --> not for anyone except relevant medical types, the gov't because they pay for it, and moi.

Would the gubberment ever tell me that my medical info was missing on a stolen data stick? Probably not. My righteous indignation would probably never come to pass because I would never know.

I recently found out that the Evil BC Government has been warehousing DNA from newborns born in BC over the past 11 years. Nobody asked me if it was alright to catalog and warehouse my daughter's DNA. My ass has been on fire ever since. http://www.bccla.org/pressreleases/10DNAclass_action.html

This was barely a blip on the news radar here, despite the far reaching implications this could have in the future.

ooo big whop.. the government cares.

seriously do YOU care? Does it matter who knows what medical stuff you have had? (well other then you obviously dont want your wife to find out about the VD you caught from that stripper.. but other then that....)

I may not want my employer/future employers to know about medical procedures I've had. Should I become deluded enough to pursue a career in politics, it may be beneficial to me not to have the general public know what has been done to me.

Other then a sex change.. what could any of it matter..

oo.. uh never mind CS.. sorry I asked.

Har, har, har.

Medical records related to things like treatment for mental illness, drug addition, suicide attempts, abortions, gerbiling attempts with Richard Gere --> probably not things employers/neighbors/constituents/media/your mother. Nothing good could come of it. Would you like that public?

The simple fact is it is highly personal and that confidentiality must be zealously guarded at all types. Anyone responsible for the loss or misappropriation of that information should be prosecuted, lose their jobs, and anything else I can think of.

well everyone has the done the gerbil.. so thats okay... but I have not had any illnesses of any merit so I guess that is why I dont see any issue.

Ne neither. Does not diminish the fact that your medical history is nobody's business. Especially your gerbil history...

deanks medical records

hmm..

1972 born.
1973 hospital for severe sunburn ( at least I hope she took me to the hospital)
1974 bunch of kids stuff//
1975 german measles... 12ish days later... chicken pox ( yeah apparently my mom almost went crazy with the 3 of us getting both of those in a 3 week period)
1977 jumped off a stool with a kite crossstick in my mouth. tore the top of my mouth open blood everywhere..
1978 9 days before christmas... had a bath, warmed up near the airtight wood heater... a little too near the heater.... 1st, 2nd 3rd degree burns to my bum. 8 days in the hospital got out christmas eve...(or christmas eve eve.. cant remember) was VERY pissed off that they made a 6 year old sleep in a damn crib ( mind you I was very small for my age)
1982??83? almost died from my first ever asthma attack. spent 7 days in hospital
to 1993 nothing of note.. some aches and pains and such..no procedures maybe some antibiotics in there for ear aches and stuff. however several NOT goes to a hospital
cut my leg with a chain saw, chopped my knee with an axe. chopped my finer with an axe ..dove into a rock....got stabbed in the ass, broken nose, tore my thumb out of the socket by attempting a flip...damn near drowned... so you know typical boy stuff

1994 ended up in the hospital because of a severe bleeding ulcer and extreme dehydration...( drank way way too much the night before) 2 days in hospital
1994 ended up getting a Medical note for quitting job.. massive headaches caused by the grease and cooking smells and such.

1997 MASSIVE ear infection caused by playing at skinners wet and wild
1997 sperm count because my wife and I trying for so long to get preggers and no go.. result.. nope not me. 65million baby!!
2000 high blood pressure and massive headaches. test show nothing ( gee my father in law died, we moved and I got a new job all in 4 months time frame.. nothing stressful there)
2001 badly sprained ankle.
2006 time to wiggle the weiner and get tested again!! 55+million oh yeah baby! stay away from me if you are fertile!
to 2010... various aches and pains and blood pressure. heart . head ache trouble




want to know anything else?

If CitizenSourpus still has problems with her drug addiction,mental illness, and posting problems, and wanted to run for an office, that information released to the general public, or worse to DeanK (cannot keep a secret), that would be the end of that attempt.
Similarly if it became general information that Stockwell Day's IQ was 78 that would probably get him elected as the head of the Conservatives, who would throw out Harper because it is generally perceived that Harper's IQ is 79! lol

CitizenSourpuss wrote:Medical records related to things like treatment for mental illness, drug addition, suicide attempts, abortions, gerbiling attempts with Richard Gere --> probably not things employers/neighbors/constituents/media/your mother. Nothing good could come of it. Would you like that public?

this is stuff the public NEEDS to know, to keep it a secret would be a crime against humanity

rosencrentz wrote:If CitizenSourpus still has problems with her drug addiction,mental illness, and posting problems, and wanted to run for an office, that information released to the general public, or worse to DeanK (cannot keep a secret), that would be the end of that attempt.
Similarly if it became general information that Stockwell Day's IQ was 78 that would probably get him elected as the head of the Conservatives, who would throw out Harper because it is generally perceived that Harper's IQ is 79! lol

You get 12 virtual thumbs up for managing to get a Stockwell Day joke in there. Maybe a bonus one because it was a crack at his IQ.

I already admitted that I am addicted to coffee and need it mainlined, or I simply cannot cope. That said, I tend to lean more in the DeanK direction and overshare, so my predilection for gerbils and ingrown toe-nail removals or what-have-you is probably well documented all over the internet anyway.

DeanK you didn't include all of your medical records, because there was no mention of your barbeque behaviour last year on August 7th(birthday) or was it Aug 8th or 9th- you'd have to check the records! lol

didn;t end up in the hospital or at a doctor.. so it dont count

Medical info being sold.

To an extent, yes. I don't want someone to PROFIT from my medical history.

But as long as I am pointed towards finding cures for my illnesses, then I don't give a F**K.

But as far as alternative medicine is, such as buying
stuff from Vitahealth and similar joints ... Vita has
a loyal customer card and I don't want no part of it.
Who knows whom they're selling that info too, and why?
Would the CIA purchase this info to one day go against
people who are using alternative (herbal) medicines?

I only care if my medical information goes missing if it's in my doctor's office.

Well, this argument has been part of the problem with the medical industry as a whole in Canada AND the US.

That there's no "universal" health-care registry that can be addressed when going from doctor-to-doctor.

One person could easily (and probably does) go from Doctor-A, to Doctor-B, to Doctor-C complaining to each of a different "symptom" in order to obtain prescriptions for a variety of drugs...and none of those doctors would know any different.
And, as long as each prescription is filled at a different pharmacy chain...or a couple of mom & pop shops...the pharmacist won't catch it either.

It's one of the primary things that NEEDS to change in order for any type of socialized health care or effective health care at all system to work.

A centralized database needs to be created and access limited to health-care-professionals, though if an individual wants a copy they should have access through their health-care provider (doctor) or directly at an MHA location.

AGEsAces wrote:That there's no "universal" health-care registry that can be addressed when going from doctor-to-doctor.

In 1993 I installed a network for the pathology department at Grace Hospital. Their software (written in dBase III) wasn't multi-user, so I converted it to FoxBase+ (an improvement on the same language) and added record locking. I charged them $125, which covered gas and parking at Grace.

They were only going to use it for a few months, before switching to software that the entire province would use. This would allow doctors at one hospital to check for a patient's records at another hospital - something they couldn't do at the time.

In 1999 they were still using my software. I enabled 4-digit years (the data entry people had INSISTED on 2-digit years, but I stored the data with all 4 digits) and added a couple features. They were still just a few months away from switching to the new software.

In 2004 I converted the program to Visual FoxPro and added more features. They were still just a few months away from switching to the new software.

As far as I know they converted to the new software in 2006. Dunno if the whole province is using it.

I know a few things about the security requirements for the new program. I was lucky that my program was "grandfathered" and didn't have to meet those requirements. It's no wonder that the new software took so long to arrive.

Part of the problem is "privacy laws" which requires such security it's almost unreasonable to approach.

It's been a HUGE issue in the US, and I know my doctor has even told me a limitation here in Canada.

The biggest problem is the "baby-boomer" population who is still paranoid about their privacy and that someone might find out about the wart on their toe.

I listen to my mother-in-law talk about her doctor's visit and how she was mortified when she had to show her doctor something on her back because she had to remove her shirt, and that it was that moment a nurse walked in.

All that money being spent on that gun registry? Let's move it to a national health-care registry. Issue national health-cards. Standardize treatment nationwide based on population and demand. Put the money where it can do some good.

With today's society becoming more transient than ever...it should be imperative to have a government which can serve such a population, instead of assuming people are going to be born and die in the same house like they (typically) did 100 years ago.

I am not worried about medical records going missing, but am concerned that i cannot remember who my Doctor is, or where his practise is located.

I vaguely remember that some of the hoo-ha that surrounded the start of the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) was the story of some doctor's office that had accidentally left boxes of medical files in a back lane - I think they were mistaken for recycling or something like that. Paper files, not electronic. It still happened back in the olden days... I agree that some of the caution around medical electronic information can be too paranoid, you have to weight the benefits of having an accessible database for health care providers to better provide the care that is needed against the needs of privacy.

Maybe if there was an electronic system, but people could consent to have their file in that electronic database or not; it would at least get a lot of people in there.

I know there is a way for hospitals to get a "dispensing history", they can find out what medications have been dispensed by any pharmacy to an individual, and get some clues about health history that way. And I thought they were working on getting imaging such as x-rays and CT's so they can be viewed online from any site, but I don't know if that is province-wide yet.