The Constitution gets an electronic update
July 1, 1998 less than 1 minute read
The Constitution gets an electronic update
Vice president announces electronic initiative
The vice president gave the Bill of Rights a '90s update in May by announcing a new initiative to restrict access to medical records, along with other privacy issues.
Called the Electronic Bill of Rights, Vice President Al Gore is urging that medical records have restricted access and is creating a government review of how federal agencies handle personal information. Gore has asked Congress to act in restricting access, but took the initiative one step further in empowering patients. Individuals should have the right to see and correct their records, he says.
"The vice president's electronic Bill of Rights is important to this country, given the near exponential proliferation of technology in our lives. It is time to take a deep and hard look at how confidential information is used, by whom, and for what purposes," says Linda Kloss, RRA, executive vice president and CEO of the American Health Information Management Association in Chicago.
"It is imperative that we do not make technology the culprit. Misuses of information are the result of carelessness and greed - not technology. The most effective way to protect electronic information is to develop policies, procedures, and an overall national mindset that lessen the potential for carelessness, ban the unauthorized use of information beyond its initial purpose, and impose civil and criminal penalties upon those who violate these principles," adds Kloss.
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