CLP
member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2010
- Messages
- 1,397
So I was browsing another thread and someone mentioned something about computerized medical records. There are "meaningful use" criteria for these EMR's (electronic medical records) programs which allow you to take large numbers of records and extract specific data for research purposes (e.g. to study average weights of adolescents in poor neighborhoods vs. better off neighborhoods...
So the EO's (or memos, or whatever they were) that Obama enacted essentially encouraging physicians to more often ask about firearm ownership will help populate this data point in EMR programs. Now, as far as accessing that date there would naturally be HIPPA reg's and what not that should, hypothetically, protect the privacy of individuals. But how often have we heard in the news stories of medical records being thrown in dumpsters or laptops with medical records being stolen.
Basically, with a few keystrokes, an authorized person could filter all medical records of patients that own firearms (provided they told their doctor they owned them). I'm not trying to fan any flames here, but it does seem to me that this is more or less a form of a gun registry.
So the EO's (or memos, or whatever they were) that Obama enacted essentially encouraging physicians to more often ask about firearm ownership will help populate this data point in EMR programs. Now, as far as accessing that date there would naturally be HIPPA reg's and what not that should, hypothetically, protect the privacy of individuals. But how often have we heard in the news stories of medical records being thrown in dumpsters or laptops with medical records being stolen.
Basically, with a few keystrokes, an authorized person could filter all medical records of patients that own firearms (provided they told their doctor they owned them). I'm not trying to fan any flames here, but it does seem to me that this is more or less a form of a gun registry.