Group to award EHR privacy seals of approval
Thursday, January 31, 2008
By: Nancy Ferris

Government Health IT - 1/31/08 The Patient Privacy Rights organization plans to begin evaluating electronic health record products and awarding a seal of approval to those that meet the organization's standards for protecting the privacy of personal health information.

The organization's founder, psychiatrist Dr. Deborah Peel, said the initiative will get under way later this year. It will begin gradually and likely start by focusing on personal health records and data repositories, she told Government Health IT.

Consumers do not run any of the current standards and certification programs, Peel said, and none of the programs ensures that patients have control over what is done with their information.

Although Patient Privacy Rights or an affiliated organization created for that purpose will verify that products adhere to privacy principles, experts in information technology security will evaluate the technical aspects of products, Peel said.

"You can't have privacy without security," she said.

The idea is to build a trusted consumer brand similar to the Good Housekeeping Seal, she added.

Evaluation of more complex EHR products will come later, partly because few if any of them are ready for privacy certification, Peel said. Today, "none of the hospital systems [is] secure or [gives] consumers any control" over their records, she said.

Because a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization is overseeing the evaluations, companies seeking certification will pay a fee to cover the costs of the program.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare IT, the only certification body the Health and Human Services Department recognizes, operates in a similar fashion.

by Nancy Ferris

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