A frustrated woman sits at her desk, staring at her computer. Her head is resting in her hand

Patient-Directed Uses vs. The Platform

By Adrian Gropper, MD

This post originally appeared on The Health Care Blog.

This piece is part of the series “The Health Data Goldilocks Dilemma: Sharing? Privacy? Both?” which explores whether it’s possible to advance interoperability while maintaining privacy. Check out other pieces in the series here.

It’s 2023. Alice, a patient at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, decides to get a second opinion at Mayo Clinic. She’s heard great things about Mayo’s collaboration with Google that everyone calls “The Platform”. Alice is worried, and hoping Mayo’s version of Dr. Google says something more than Ascension’s version of Dr. Google. Is her Ascension doctor also using The Platform?

Alice makes an appointment in the breast cancer practice using the Mayo patient portal. Mayo asks permission to access her health records. Alice is offered two choices, one uses HIPAA without her consent and the other is under her control. Her choice is: Read More

Filing archives cabinet on a laptop screen

The Right Lesson from the Google-Ascension Patient Privacy Story

By I. Glenn Cohen

As has been well reported in the media, there is a controversy brewing over nonprofit hospital chain Ascension sharing millions of patient records with Google for their project codenamed “Nightingale.” (very Batman, if you ask me!) Most of the discussion so far, and the answers have not yet become pellucid, concerns whether the hospital and Google complied with HIPAA.

 

This is important, don’t get me wrong, but it is important that conversation not ignore a more important question: Read More