STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

RE: HIPAA Survey

• Date:   Tue, 10 Jun 2003 11:29:09 -0400
• To:   sthc-l@library.ucla.edu, jlgehrli@med.cornell.edu
• From:   Adele Lerner <aalerner@earthlink.net>
• Subject:   RE: HIPAA Survey
• Message-ID:   410-22003621015299280@earthlink.net

Hi all,

As a retiree I am not involved directly, so I'm not answering the 
survey, assuming that my succesor will. But I am congratulating Steve 
on an excellent Letter to the Editor in today's New York Times Science 
Section. i am copying it here, for those who don't have easy access to 
The Times.

" Keeping It Private

To the Editor:

Re "Sorry, That Information Is Off Limits: A Privacy Law's Unintended 
Consequences" (June 3): The Health Insurance Portability and 
Accountability Act may have potentially devastating effects on the work 
of historians and other researchers. They need access to historical 
patient records held by the nation's libraries and archives.

These documents are essential not only for writing the history of 
medicine, but also for health care policy analysis.

While the act does provide mechanisms for research access to patient 
records, the process is so convoluted and the definitions so opaque 
that many institutions, especially those without an archivist or 
librarian on staff, may bar access simply to protect themselves.

Historical records document how society cares, or fails to care, for 
the sick. It would be a great loss to all of us if a law designed to 
shed light on the working of our health care system makes it impossible 
for scholars to do just that.   

STEPHEN E. NOVAK
New York
The writer is chief, Archives and Special Collections, Columbia 
University Health Sciences Library."


Great work.

Adele A. Lerner
310 West End Avenue
Apt 4D
New York, NY 10023-8146

212-874-4407
aalerner@earthlink.net