Microsoft Raises the Bar for Privacy in Electronic Health Record Solutions <\/span><\/p>\nPatientPrivacyRights.Org, a national consumer watchdog group, works with technology giant Microsoft to put consumers in control of their electronic health records.<\/p>\n
Austin, TX – Earlier this year Microsoft sought advice from PatientPrivacyRights.Org about building privacy protections into their new consumer health platform, HealthVault.\u00a0 Today Microsoft\u2019s HealthVault system goes \u201clive\u201d and proves that technology can give consumers complete control over who can see or use the information in their health accounts.\u00a0 HealthVault proves that privacy is not an obstacle to building useful and safe technology to improve health.<\/p>\n
Fifty years ago today, the Soviets launched Sputnik in space and provided a wake up call for Americans, changing what we thought was possible and jolting industry.\u00a0 The privacy protection in HealthVault is Health IT\u2019s Sputnik.\u00a0 Microsoft proves that privacy works in real-world electronic health systems and it cannot be ignored. \u201cConsent is essential for consumer trust and participation in digital health systems,\u201d says PatientPrivacyRights.Org\u2019s founder, Dr. Deborah Peel. HealthVault requires consumers to give informed consent before any use or disclosure of personal health information.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorporate claims to offer privacy mean nothing unless they are willing to take the same steps Microsoft has taken in building HealthVault,” says Peel. Microsoft has committed to independent third party audits to verify their pledge to protect privacy.\u00a0 \u201cAudits are essential,\u201d says Peel.\u00a0 \u201cTechnology companies have got to do better than telling consumers to just \u2018trust us.\u2019\u00a0 Consumers shouldn\u2019t trust anyone but themselves to decide who can see and use their sensitive health information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Microsoft was very receptive to concerns about the unchecked loss of consumer control of personal health information and the abuse of Americans\u2019 rights to health privacy.\u00a0 Microsoft is the first major multinational technology corporation to collaborate with PatientPrivacyRights.Org and use the 2007 Privacy Principles created by the bi-partisan Coalition for Patient Privacy as the basis for the consumer controls of the health data stored in HealthVault.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s use of the Coalition\u2019s strong principles ensures that consumers alone control the personal health information they store in HealthVault accounts. No one: not insurers, employers, hospitals, application partners, advertisers, data miners, or even Microsoft will access consumers\u2019 electronic health accounts without consent.\u00a0 Microsoft\u2019s application partners are held to the same privacy standards as HealthVault.\u00a0 Partners are prohibited from data mining or data aggregation contractually and by technical design, and no onward transfer of data is permitted without explicit informed consent. Advertisers are contractually required to protect any data transferred from HealthVault, and HealthVault\u2019s privacy policies are simple and easy to understand.<\/p>\n
In advance of the launch, Microsoft presented the security and privacy features of HealthVault to the Coalition for Patient Privacy.\u00a0 A number of issues were raised, and Microsoft pledged to continue to improve HealthVault\u2019s protections and features and address new concerns as they emerge with the Coalition going forward.<\/p>\n
Finally, Microsoft\u2019s new health search engine allows people to search for health information anonymously. Search information may be saved to your Health Vault account where your searches are kept private and secure. Today, virtually all health sites data mine whatever you read and study, and sell that along with your identifying information. So at last it\u2019s possible to search without fear that someone will know about what your concerns are.<\/p>\n
PatientPrivacyRights.Org founder, Dr. Deborah C. Peel, will stand with Microsoft in Washington, D.C today at a press conference to announce the launch of HealthVault. PatientPrivacyRights.Org applauds Microsoft\u2019s implementation of the most stringent existing standards for privacy in HealthVault. Microsoft\u2019s willingness to incorporate the Coalition\u2019s strictest privacy standards is truly revolutionary and sets a new, very high bar for the entire industry.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s HealthVault gives Americans a private, secure, trusted place for collecting and storing their personal health information. No consumer should trust any digital health system or technology product that does not follow the same best practices for privacy and security that HealthVault has put into action.\u00a0\u00a0 PatientPrivacyRights.Org looks forward to standing with other technology corporations as they step up and employ best practices for privacy and security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 10:00 A.M. EST, OCTOBER 4, 2007 For Immediate Release October 4, 2007 Contact: \\n Ashley Katz This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-1567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-press-release"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-ph","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Press-Releases.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/5889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}