Good morning! Oh, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good morning and goodnight. That’s a quote from The Truman Show, a film depicting a reality tv series where Jim Carrey and his unique brand of comedic-dramatic acting plays the unwitting lead character. It is one of those too-close-to-possible disturbing movies that is well-written, well-acted, and has plenty of comic relief. If you haven’t seen it, spoiler alert: Truman is born and raised entirely on a massive tv set. He is surrounded by actors and every minute of his life is recorded by thousands of cameras for the viewing pleasure of one billion viewers. It is the ultimate invasion of privacy when video surveillance is allowed to go to its logical extreme. In the One Thoughtful Paragraph, we explain how privacy protections are being put in place so The Truman Show does not become our reality.
News from this week that Jim Carrey, as his can’t-lie character in the movie Liar Liar, would have no choice but to admit is important, but pretty boring:
- ONC released the Common Agreement Version 2.0, which included updates that require Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) that participate in the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) to support FHIR API exchange.
- The Federation of State Medical Boards published a new report titled, “Navigating the Responsible and Ethical Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence into Clinical Practice.”
- The Joint Commission announced plans to launch a telehealth accreditation on July 1, 2024. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) will also release its own virtual care standards in July and allow applications for the accreditation in November.
There is no shortage of movies about invasions of privacy. At least two involve the great actor Gene Hackman – who played pivotal characters in both The Conversation and Enemy of the State. There are many more films about this primal fear about being spied on. People need privacy to feel safe, protected from judgment, and like they some control over their lives. While no movie has been made about this yet, HHS released a final rule this week called the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy. The rule prohibits doctors, health plans and others from disclosing protected health information that could be used to investigate and prosecute women who seek reproductive care like IVF, the purchase of birth control, and abortions in states where they are legal. In another movie-script-waiting-to-happen example, Colorado declared that “neural data” (read: human brain waves) are protected under the state’s privacy law. It seems like something out of the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise, but there are LOTS of opportunities for commercial organizations to capture and sell neural data from devices that monitor and manipulate brain activity (read more here, here, here, here). Despite some enthusiasm about the possibility of a national privacy law finally being passed, there isn’t one right now. So maybe you are tracking my brain waves and you already know this, but I have to admit – just like Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar – this news is freaking me out a little bit.
