Boost Patient Privacy while Easing Health Info Exchange, Researchers Warn

As the federal government encourages the more free exchange of health information, researchers are calling for increased privacy protections for patients. Giving caregivers access to patient portals could allow them to view sensitive medical records that patients might not want them to see, professors from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and New York University wrote in an April 18 research paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The researchers call for proxy accounts specifically for caregivers and family members in which patients would decide the information to be included.