Post date: Jan 28, 2011 3:16:12 PM
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released "Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward" on December 8, 2010. The report calls for "tagged data elements" rather than metadata tag at the document level. The report argues that patient's may wish to reveal only certain parts of their medical record.
My first thoughts - Facebook users can't seem to set their privacy settings correctly or even aware of them. Facebook users are the same patients targeted in this report. I agree privacy is critically important (e.g., why do some patients buy certain drugs for cash) but can the patient really protect themselves from entities that might use the information against them?
I'm pointing you to a post on The Health Care Blog by Vince Kuraitis titled "PCAST HIT Report Becomes a Political Piñata" which summarizes early comments by various organizations primarily on technical aspects of the standard.