In March, the society went before the legislative committee that has been drafting the act and expressed concerns that the proposed wording did not adequately protect patient privacy. Lowther said the medical society welcomes the idea of the legislation, because as things stand now, nothing is spelled out.
Governments are in a position to profit from the sale of patient information.
Situations often arise where third parties such as lawyers, insurance companies or law enforcement officials are eager to access entire patient files. The patient does not understand that what the insurance company or lawyer is going to get is the whole file. They think they will get only what relates to the incident under question. The recent trend toward the sale of information, simply because its possible, could change the practice of medicine in unforeseen ways. Lowther said the medical society has no objection to the release of properly anonymized patient information for research purposes, as long as the wording of the legislation clearly spells out the difference between proper and improper access.