Patient disempowerment through the commercial access to digital health records

Abstract

In this article, I consider how patients are disempowered through the commercial access to their health data in the United States. I examine two healthcare information technology bills that ostensibly give patients access and control over their health records. However, I contend that, since these regulations were drafted, in part or in whole, by corporate interests represented by healthcare lobbyists, policymakers use the rhetorical device of patient empowerment to allow for the commercial access to patient data, which ultimately disempowers patients. This is because in both bills the asymmetrical relationship to patient data remains the same: patients do not have ownership or control over the data that they produce. Rather, policymakers legislatively cede control over patient data to commercial interests.

Keywords: bioethics; health policy; technology in healthcare.