Privacy from the other perspective

Often times people are very quick to understand Privacy from the Patient's perspective. Often times these discussions include many overt violations of the Provider's Privacy. There is an article on "Doctor records taken offline". This article title doesn't hint at the actual article content. I am not going to side one way or the other on the actual problem. I will point out that Privacy has many perspectives, and focusing too closely on one perspective can cause unintended consequences.

Illinois once provided the public with detailed histories of the state's doctors — including whether the physician was convicted of a crime, fired by a hospital or forced to make a medical malpractice payment within the previous five years. Judging from online traffic, there was great hunger for that information: During the two years that they were posted, the physician profiles generated 130,000 clicks per week. But access to the profiles came to a screeching halt in February, when the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation removed them from its Web site and placed them under lock and key — the latest chapter in a long political battle that has pitted patients' advocates against the state's medical lobby.   Read More