The Cost of Privacy: A Debate on the Impact of Privacy Laws on Health IT Adoption

The Cost of Privacy: A Debate on the Impact of Privacy Laws on Health IT Adoption

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
1101 K Street, NW, Suite 610
Washington, DC 20005
Monday, June 22, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
http://www.itif.org/rsvp/event.php?id=3

As the Obama Administration moves forward with plans to modernize health care by encouraging the use of electronic medical records (EMR), some parties continue to raise concerns about privacy. Strong privacy laws may help protect confidential patient information and encourage user acceptance. But strict privacy laws can also impose additional burdens on health care providers and may slow technology adoption. A new study recently published in Management Science attempts to quantify the effect of state privacy regulations on the diffusion of EMRs and finds that strict privacy regulations reduces aggregate EMR adoption by hospitals by almost one-quarter. However, organizations promoting stricter privacy regulations such as Patient Privacy Rights have dismissed the findings as "preposterous."

Join ITIF for a thoughtful debate between the authors and critics of the report to learn more about the impact of privacy laws on technology diffusion in health care.

Moderator:
Daniel Castro (bio)
Senior Analyst, The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Panelists:
Dr. Amalia Miller (bio)
Co-author of study and Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Virginia

Dr. Catherine Tucker (bio)
Co-author of study, Douglas Drane Career Development Professor in IT and Management, and Assistant Professor of Marketing and , MIT Sloan School of Management

Deven McGraw (bio)
Director of the Health Privacy Project, Center for Democracy and Technology