In message <[log in to unmask]> Ross Anderson writes:
>> PRS seem to have gone to great lengths to satisfy issues of
>> data security and confidentiality
>
>I've never heard of them. If they are serious about security then
>why haven't they been in touch with us?
>
This story has been running in Pharmaceutical Journal for some weeks.
Latest I have read (Chemist & Druggist 26-Oct) is that the Pharmacy
Computer Suppliers Association is meeting this month to decide on
issues relating to data ownership and security.
>
>(2) a large database of personal health information is created that
> appears to be under the control of PRS rather than one of the
> clinical professions. It doesn't even appear to have an explicit
> contract with the Department that forbids it from selling data
> other than to the originators of that data, as Clearing has (and
> I'm not completely happy with Clearing)
>
It will certainly make it even more profitable for pharmacists to
sell their prescription data to commercial database companies, who
will then re-sell it to the pharmaceutical industry, as is currently
being negotiated. At the moment the pharmacists still have to re-key
the FP10s - in future GPs will be doing it for them. A bit ironic
since it is the prescribers' own identities that the pharma companies
so particularly wants to buy.
--
Pete Mitchell, Editor, e-Med News - an international
newsletter on electronic data in medical applications
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