Hot Topics: Privacy

Blog Posts (38)

October 5, 2017

Livestreaming Surgery: New guidelines raise questions of who benefits

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

The Internet and social media have raised hosts of new ethical issues in the health care world: Should doctors friend their patients?…

September 15, 2017

Medical Gawking Case Points to Need for Culture Change

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

According to a news report in The Washington Post, a number of medical staff at a Pittsburgh hospital have been reprimanded over a gross violation of a patient’s privacy.…

August 18, 2017

Ethics & Society Newsfeed: August 18, 2017

Politics Neil Gorsuch Speech at Trump Hotel Raises Ethical Questions “Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, is scheduled to address a conservative group at the Trump International Hotel in Washington next month, less than two weeks before the court is set to hear arguments on Mr. Trump’s travel ban.” Trump’s Washington DC hotel … More Ethics & Society Newsfeed: August 18, 2017
June 14, 2017

Trump Opioid Task Force Considers HIPAA Exception for Overdoses

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Confidentiality is one of the sacrosanct principles of medicine. By keeping the secrets that patients share with health care providers, the patient trusts the provider and the provider has the information necessary to diagnose and treat.…

May 31, 2017

Time to Secure Your Implantable Medical Devices from Hackers

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

In the last few weeks, a major malware attack (WannaCry) paralyzed computers around the world, including electronic health records at the UK’s National Health Service and at hospitals throughout the world.…

April 25, 2017

Genetic Fingerprints and National Security

by Beau P. Sperry, Megan Allyse & Richard R. Sharp

Biometric surveillance is rapidly becoming an integral component of national security policy and practice.…

April 5, 2017

Internet Privacy and Health Portals: Why I Won’t Be Contacting My Doctor Online

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Part of the Affordable Care Act was an effort to increase efficiency in sharing and storing health data through electronic health records.…

February 21, 2017

User Beware: Privacy Settings just a Facade

By Brenda Curtis, Ph.D. Social media platforms continue to improve and refine their privacy settings as the demand for advanced user protections increases. Although enabling catered privacy settings to online profiles allows users to indicate who they would like share personal information with, it does not necessarily protect them from the platforms – i.e. websites … More User Beware: Privacy Settings just a Facade
February 21, 2017

Studying “Friends”: The Ethics of Using Social Media as Research Platforms

by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Ph.D.

Social media is increasingly creating the contours of many Americans’ daily lives as a medium that is simultaneously intimate and powerfully public.…

January 13, 2017

BioethicsTV: Violating confidentialty, ethical decision-making, unapproved human experimentation

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Chicago Med (Season 2; Episode 10): In this episode a heart patient returns from a previous episode when a heart is found for a transplant.…

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Published Articles (8)

AJOB Primary Research: Volume 8 Issue 2 - Apr 2017

When bins blur: Patient perspectives on categories of results from clinical whole genome sequencing Leila Jamal, Jill O. Robinson, Kurt D. Christensen, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Melody J. Slashinski, Denise Lautenbach Perry, Jason L. Vassy, Julia Wycliff, Robert C. Green & Amy L. McGuire

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 17 Issue 5 - May 2017

Ethical Issues in Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Practice Yonghui Ma, Jiayu Liu, Catherine Rhodes, Yongzhan Nie & Faming Zhang

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 17 Issue 5 - May 2017

Ethics, Refugees, and the President's Executive Order Nancy E. Kass

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 17 Issue 5 - May 2017

Genetic Fingerprints and National Security Beau P. Sperry, Megan Allyse & Richard R. Sharp

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 17 Issue 1 - Jan 2017

Tracking U.S. Professional Athletes: The Ethics of Biometric Technologies Katrina Karkazis & Jennifer R. Fishman

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 15 Issue 11 - Nov 2015

Ingestible Drug Adherence Monitors: Trending Toward a Surveillance Society? Richard R. Sharp

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 14 Issue 10 - Oct 2014

Case Study:The Obligations to Report Statutory Sexual Abuse Disclosed in a Research Study Holly A. Taylor, Ellen Kuwana & Benjamin S. Wilfond

American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 13 Issue 10 - Oct 2013

Why Misconduct Trumps Patient–Therapist Confidentiality and Ways to Avoid the Disclosure Dilemma Nicholas H. Steneck

News (182)

July 5, 2017 10:00 am

For Parents of U.K. Infant, Trump’s Tweet Is Latest Twist in an Agonizing Journey (The New York Times)

The long journey for Connie Yates and Chris Gard, whose infant son, Charlie, cannot breathe or move on his own, appeared to have come to an end last week. The courts had ruled that the baby’s rare genetic condition was incurable and that the only humane option was to take him off life support. The couple announced that they were getting ready “to say the final goodbye.” Then Pope Francis and President Trump weighed in, offering statements of support and thrusting a global spotlight onto a heart-rending case that has become a cause célèbre in Britain.

June 21, 2017 9:00 am

China cracks down on fake peer reviews (Nature)

The Chinese government is going on the offensive against scientists who dupe journals by creating fraudulent reviews of submitted papers. A coalition of agencies led by the science ministry announced on 14 June that the government would suspend the grants of researchers involved in such fraud, which surfaced earlier this year when a cancer journal retracted 107 research papers from Chinese authors. And funding agencies in China promised to increase policing of the scientific community to prevent similar deceptions.

October 31, 2016 8:00 am

The controversial DNA search that helped nab the 'Grim Sleeper' is winning over skeptics (LA Times)

The “Roaming Rapist” is one of a handful of cases that California authorities have quietly solved in recent years using a controversial technique that scours an offender DNA database for a father, son or brother of an elusive crime suspect.

August 17, 2016 8:00 am

Spiking genomic databases with misinformation could protect patient privacy (Nature)

Large genomic databases are indispensable for scientists looking for genetic variations associated with diseases. But they come with privacy risks for people who contribute their DNA. A 2013 study1 showed that hackers could use publicly available information on the Internet to identify people from their anonymized genomic data.

May 12, 2016 8:14 am

For cholesterol study volunteer, an unsettling discovery in a Science paper: herself (Science)

When I first meet Rita Woidislawsky at La Colombe, her favorite coffee shop steps from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s upscale Rittenhouse Square, she’s effusive and bracingly direct—hugging patrons she knows, waving to baristas, and quickly finding the one table that’s about to free up. She’s dressed in workout clothes and delights in looking younger than her 68 years, with curly hair and an Israeli accent that’s lingered since she emigrated in her late teens.

April 22, 2016 9:52 am

New York Hospital to Pay $2.2 Million Over Unauthorized Filming of 2 Patients

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has agreed to pay a $2.2 million penalty to federal regulators for allowing television crews to film two patients without their consent — one who was dying, the other in significant distress. Regulators said on Thursday that the hospital allowed filming to continue even after a medical professional asked that it stop.

February 17, 2016 4:33 pm

Hospital hack reveals digital risk in medical world

A Southern California hospital fell victim to hackers last week — offering a glimpse at one of many digital threats facing health care.

February 8, 2016 4:42 pm

U.S. and Europe in ‘Safe Harbor’ Data Deal, but Legal Fight May Await

European officials on Tuesday agreed to a deal with the United States that would let Google, Amazon and thousands of other businesses continue moving people’s digital data, including social media posts and financial information, back and forth across the Atlantic.

February 4, 2016 7:18 pm

Safe Harbor ripped and replaced with Privacy Shield in last-minute US-Europe deal

“For the first time ever, the United States has given the EU binding assurances that the access of public authorities for national security purposes will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms,” said Europe’s justice commissioner Věra Jourová.

January 27, 2016 7:10 pm

Big Pharma's bet on Big Data creates opportunities and risks

The Swiss drugmaker has teamed up with U.S. technology firm Qualcomm to develop an internet-connected inhaler that can send information about how often it is used to remote computer servers known as the cloud.

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