"How Safe Are Your Medical Records?"

"How Safe Are Your Medical Records?"

I came across this article while doing some research on the internet and decided to share it as it has direct bearing on the use of Internet and the Future of Healthcare.

The article, published in Forbes magazine dated 06-03-09, provides details medical data theft at the University of Berkeley and how hackers were able to steal data from separate servers over a a span of six months, which included information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses, and immunization records.

Per the article, all in all the security breach affected 160,000 people, most of them current and former students. However, what was interesting for me was the close relationship one would not otherwise expect one's medical data could have to one's financial well being. For most people, I would assume, if someone stated that their medical records, then we may dismiss the theft by saying what is someone going to gain by knowing I had x, y or z condition. Since we are more focused on the medical theft aspect of the breach, we would not innately think someone could open false accounts under our name.

However, since name, address and date of birth information along with social security is standard information with all medical records it is not hard to see how one's financial well being can be exploited from one's medical records.

All in all, it was an interesting article to read. Should you interested then the entire article can be viewed at the following url: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/03/health-identity-theft-lifestyle-health-medical-records.html

Cheers!