- Author
-
Westin, A. F.
|
Isbell, F.
- Title
- Policy Analysis of Citizen Rights Issues in Health Data Systems. A Condensation of NBS Monograph 157.
- Coporate
- Columbia Univ., New York
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBS SP 469
January 1977
48 p.
- Distribution
- Available from Government Printing Office
- Keywords
-
computers
- Abstract
- This is a condensation of the report "Computers, Health Records, and Citizen Rights" by Alan F. Westin, NBS Monograph 157, which investigates the impact of computers on citizen rights in the health record keeping area. Under Dr. Alan E. Westin's direction, from July of 1974 to April of 1976, a small interdisciplinary team did the following: (1) examined published literature from medicine and health, law, computing, and social science; (2) conducted interviews with major computer manufacturers, systems developers, health professionals and civil liberties, public interest, consumer, and minority-rights groups; (3) made on-site visits to six representative health-care organizations using computers to handle personal records; (4) corresponded with 70 organizations in the health field; and (5) subjected an initial draft report to review by a conference of experts in September 1975 and subsequently by about 50 outside reviewers. The findings of this investgiation were then combined into this four-part report. Part One describes the world of medical data and citizen rights within the framework of three zones--primary health care (by health professionals), service payers and health care reviewers and social uses of health data (such as in employment, life insurance, and welfare); Part Two treats patterns of computerization in health care in each of the above zones; Part Three contains the profiles of the six health-care organizations that were studied in depth; and Part Four analyzes the impact of computerization on personal health records, presents comparisons with six other democratic nations, and states 12 recommended management principles for health care data systems. The full report also contains a 28 page bibliography and 12 appendices with support documents and information.