Study: Privacy restrictions may slow rollouts of e-health systems

By Jaikumar Vijayan

April 20, 2009 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Two researchers from MIT and the University of Virginia claim in a study publicly released last week that increased efforts to protect the privacy of health care data could hamper the deployment of electronic medical records systems.

The researchers said EMR adoption levels are often lowest in states with strong data-privacy regulations. Strict rules can make it harder and more costly for hospitals to exchange patient data, thereby reducing the value of EMR systems, the study found.

The study looked at EMR usage in 19 states over a 10-year period. It suggests that a trade-off has to be made between boosting adoption of the technology and strengthening privacy laws, said Catherine Tucker, an assistant professor of marketing at MIT's Sloan School of Management and one of the report's authors.

But the study was slammed by privacy advocates, who are already concerned about the accelerated move to a nationwide EMR system that's being pushed by President Barack Obama.

Suggesting that privacy rules could stall EMR rollouts is "preposterous," said Deborah Peel, who chairs the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation. "There are many reasons why there is low adoption, but privacy is not one of them."

This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition. An expanded version also has been posted on our Web site.

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