Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

HIPAA is a misunderstood and inadequate tool for protecting medical data

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 1900–1902 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Patients, physicians, and hospital administrators in the USA are often unaware of how legislation governs medical data—but agree that rights over such data should be expanded for patients and curtailed for health systems

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Price, W. N. & Cohen, I. G. Nat. Med. 25, 37–43 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. McKinstry, C. J. J. Health Care Finance 45, 1 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Forcier, M. B. et al. J. Law Biosci. 6, 317–335 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Cadigan, R. J. et al. Genet. Med. 13, 569–575 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Bryant, R. J. et al. J. Clin. Pathol. 61, 322–326 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cadario, R. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.03.23288075 (2023).

  7. Byrne, J. P. A. et al. Vermont Law Rev. 41, 733 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Morewedge, C. K. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 39, 125–132 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Sorrell, Attorney General to Vermont et al. v IMS Health Inc. et al. US Supreme Court 564, 552 (2011).

  10. Tovino, S. A. Seton Hall L. Rev. 47, 973–994 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bambauer, J. Stanford Law Rev. 66, 57–120 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kaplan, B. Cambridge Q. Healthcare Ethics 24, 256–271 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dinerstein v. Google, LLC. US District Courts 7th Circuit (Illinois) 484 (F. Supp. 3d), 561 (https://casetext.com/case/dinerstein-v-google-llc) (2020).

  14. Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications (MIT Press, 2017).

  15. Hall, M. A. & Schulman, K. A. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 301, 1282–1284 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Digital Business Institute at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University (to C.K.M.). C.S. and I.G.C.’s contributions were supported by a Novo Nordisk Foundation grant for a scientifically independent Collaborative Research Programme in Biomedical Innovation Law (grant agreement number NNF17SA0027784) and a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant agreement number 9974).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, Bioethics, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Carmel Shachar & I. Glenn Cohen

  2. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Romain Cadario

  3. Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Carey K. Morewedge

Authors
  1. Carmel Shachar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Romain Cadario
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. I. Glenn Cohen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Carey K. Morewedge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carey K. Morewedge.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

I.G.C. is a member of the ethics advisory board for Illumina and the Bayer Bioethics Council.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shachar, C., Cadario, R., Cohen, I.G. et al. HIPAA is a misunderstood and inadequate tool for protecting medical data. Nat Med 29, 1900–1902 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02355-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02355-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing