By Kathryn Serkes, CEO & Co-Founder, DPMA

June 4, 2012

“What’s the big deal about patient privacy?”  I’m asked that question all of the time, and it is usually based on the assumption that most people are willing to share their medical information and data for the good of society – for medical research, and other uses. But in truth, there are thousands of entities who want your medical information – and they range from legitimate clinical uses,  to marketers who are trying to sell you prescription drugs, health club memberships and even liquor.

So the big deal is that patients care about privacy.  And will take extraordinary steps to protect it.  A few years ago I polled doctors about whether patients had ever asked them to fudge their medical records to protect their privacy.  Nearly 87% of the doctors said that a patient had asked them NOT to put some information in their record because of privacy concerns.  And almost 80% of the physicians said they had indeed withheld information from a patient's record due to privacy concerns.   It makes you wonder just how much information patients don’t even tell their doctors because of privacy concerns.

So that means that those patient records – which are needed for years down the line to give an accurate picture of the patients’ condition -  are now incomplete or just plain wrong.  Every medical professional who treats that patient won’t be getting the whole story.

But there is an intangible result that is equally devastating.  As one of Doctor Patient Medical Association's guiding principle states, “The highest level of trust between patient and medical professionals is necessary for the highest level of care.” And when patients have fears about telling their doctors their most personal information, the relationship suffers, as does the care.

DPMA is a partner organization in the 2^nd International Summit on Health Privacy  this week in Washington DC.  As co-chair of the Consumer Education Workgroup, I’m leading a team working to educate the public about these issues.  One of the key issues is how can we implement electronic medical records AND protect privacy.  Be sure to subscribe to DPMA's updates - I’ll be reporting back regularly on our progress.