Fergie's Tech Blog

Can We Now Expect AT&T To Provide Health Records to The U.S. Government, Too?

An AP newswire article by Erik Shelzig, via SFGate.com, reports that:

AT&T Inc. is partnering with Tennessee to provide the country's first statewide system to electronically exchange patient medical information, the telecommunications company said Monday.

The system is designed to securely transmit detailed patient information between medical professionals. It will allow doctors to access medical histories, prescribe medicines over the Internet and transfer images like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.

"As patients we really want our information to be available to physicians whenever and wherever they're needed," said Diane Turcan, director of health care marketing for AT&T in Atlanta. "And we certainly don't want to be copying paper records."

Tennessee's program is seen as a model for other states and may be a springboard for interstate information sharing networks in the future, she said.

More here.

Note: If AT&T has been providing your call records & Internet activities to the U.S. Government without your knowledge or permission -- or more importantly, without a valid court order or any other judicial oversight -- why would anyone trust them with their health records? -ferg

posted by Fergie @ 2/24/2008 10:34:00 PM