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KMID : 0986720100180010129
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Korean Journal of Medicine and Law
2010 Volume.18 No. 1 p.129 ~ p.148
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Health Information Protection and Disclosure in Health Services Research
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Park Hyoung-Wook
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Abstract
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The accelerated development of health record systems and progressive discussions of the national infrastructure for healthcare information has resulted in active discourse regarding legislation for the protection of health information. However, health record information is not a sanctuary that must be absolutely protected without any exceptions.
In the United States, despite the high social awareness of privacy protection, public organizations are permitted to provide health records for research studies without obtaining patient consent. HIPAA and Privacy Regulations differentiate "non-identifiable" health record information from "individually identifiable" information, thereby clarifying that not all health information can be identified for each individual. Furthermore, HIPAA and Privacy Regulations clearly state that protected health information (PHI) consist of data that can be associated with a particular individual; however anonymous PHI is not protected by the law. Presently, privacy rules permit the provision of health information for research studies without patient consent under the conditions.
In Korea, current laws permit the use of individually unidentifiable health information for the purpose of research studies. Nevertheless, public organizations such as the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service and the National Health Insurance Corporation have excessively restricted the provision of this information to researchers. Recently, these organizations have undergone a fortunate, although somewhat late, change in their attitude regarding this issue. In future legislation, the interested parties must demonstrate their efforts to reach a reasonable balance between the public interest of research and the private interest of personal health information protection.
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KEYWORD
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Health Information Protection, Information Disclosure, Health services research, HIPAA
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