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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 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%