의료정보 보호를 위한 미국의 법제화 동향과 민사법상 과제

The privacy of personal information, and of medical information in particular, continues to be avexing issue in the United States. As more and more medical information is computerized, individuals express concern about their privacy and that they are losing control over their personal medical information. To help allay public concerns, federal rules governing the use and disclosure of medical information were promulgated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule). While the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not directly regulate researchers, it does restrict the manner in which health care providers may use and disclose medical information for health research. Medical information plays an important role in clinical medicine and medical research and public interest. Medicine has been developed by the accumulation of medical information that are acquired during the medical treatment of a large number of patients. Any efforts to modify or reform the existing system for protection of health-related information, must acknowledge the efforts that have taken place at the state level to protect information and accomplish various health care and public health goals. One way to both acknowledge this debt and engage state health officials and policy-makers in reform efforts is to begin an on-going dialogue between health officials and policy- makers. This report has outlined recommendations which can focus that dialogue on ways of removing barriers to the achievement of good health while respecting the need to protect the privacy of medical information.