Two items which may be of interest to members of the list
1. UK Government's Primary Care White Paper launched - brief press
notice at http://www.coi.gov.uk/coi/depts/GDH/coi2863c.ok
2. Press release of 11.00 Thursday 17th October
(this is a precis of it - there's five pages altogether and it's late
in the evening !)
2.1 - Kenneth Calman has announced formation of a working group on
confidentiality of patient information with a remit to review use of
patient information outside of direct care and research.
The group will be chaired by Dame Fiona Caldicott, Principal of
Somerville College, Oxford, and previous President of the Royal
College of Psychiatrists and President of the Academy of Royal
Colleges.
The working group will hold its first meeting at the end of October
1996 and make recommendations and report in spring 1997.
The work of the new group will build upon principles for handling
confidential information and will scrutinise each existing data flow
to advise whether the transfers of patient information are justified.
2.2 - The NHS Executive has published an evaluation report on the Red
Pike encryption algorithm by Professor Fred Piper of the Royal
Holloway College. Copies available from NHS Executive Communications
Unit, Quarry House, Leeds, LS2 7UE, tel 01132 545610
2.3 - A committee has been set up under the chairmanship of Professor
Alastair Bellingham, President of the Royal College of Pathologists,
to advise on matters relating to the security and privacy of data
passing through the NHS-wide Clearing Service.
2.4 - A joint press statement from the BMA and Dept of Health also
stated that "the Joint Working Group has identified a number of
outstanding issues to be tackled including
- where essential large health databases need to be developed, to
ensure that personal health information is held in a non-identifiable
form which can be reconciled with patient identifiers only in
controlled circumstances
- questions of legal ownership of personal health information stored
in electronic form such as in the electronic patient record
- further work on informed patient consent"
___________________________________________________________________________
John Farenden - Secta / Health Web Services
Triton House, Hare Park Lane, Liversedge, West Yorkshire, England, WF15 8HN
Tel 01274 852160, Fax 01274 852159
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|