Latanya Sweeney of Carnegie Mellon University cautions that for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) to be successful, privacy concerns cannot be overlooked. In a Modern Healthcare report, Sweeney writes, "A significant loss of privacy in the NHIN will render it useless and can cause serious personal harm as patients opt out and doctors find unforeseen ways to hide sensitive patient information." She notes, however, that the list of meaningful uses for 2011 does not include privacy incentives. Without privacy, she writes, "It doesn't take a doctorate in computer science to know the prognosis for the NHIN is not good, and it doesn't require political sensitivity to know what public reaction will be." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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