While doctors and patients are increasingly using the Internet to share health care information, posting personal data online has also created a minefield of privacy, ethics, fraud and legal issues. Lawyers, physicians and other experts attempted to sort out and clarify the dangers during the eHealthcareWorld conference in New York this week. But while 55 percent of physicians use the Internet daily, only 24 percent of them use it regularly for professional reasons, research firms Cyber Dialogue and Deloitte Research found in a separate survey.
People are concerned about their privacy.
So there's somewhat of a dichotomy. Concerns from government officials and patients are driving a push for better privacy and other protections for consumers of e-healthcare. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a final set of privacy and related regulations by the end of the year. Swindle says he is not inclined toward government regulation. The only way to stop the rush is for industry to step in.