The chair of a group that works with the government on information technology has resigned, citing the government’s lack of progress on protecting patient privacy.
Paul Feldman, chair of the privacy and security workgroup of the American Health Information Community, resigned, saying the workgroup “has not made substantial progress towards the development of comprehensive privacy and security policies that must be at the core of a nationwide health information network,” according to a report in Congressional Quarterly.
The AHIC was established to establish and implement standards that would be used by information technology vendors to ensure system compatibility and security. In a letter to Robert Kolodner, interim national coordinator for health information technology, Feldman mentioned that the workgroup has developed only one set of recommendations in six meetings. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that Health and Human Services has yet to define an overall approach for integrating privacy-related initiatives.
