Privacy and the Health Information Domain: Properties, Models and Unintended Results

Abstract

Health privacy is not binary; it is difficult to find anyone who opposes the abstract concept of protecting personal health information. For a non-binary issue, however, the subject is remarkably controversial. This article identifies and explores three reasons for the continuing controversy. First, the article details how privacy is only one "property" of the broad and quite complex health information domain. Second, it describes the different models available to regulators seeking to protect patient information and the operational choices made by mature regional and national legal systems. Third, the article briefly notes some of the unexpected and occasionally unwelcome results that follow from applying these protective models to the health information domain.