Hospitals have given technology companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and Google, access to patients’ digitized medical records under deals for research, development and product pilots, The Wall Street Journal reports. Patient data can be shared if hospitals follow federal privacy law, and hospital officials said they have implemented safeguards for patient protection. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, hospitals have to notify patients about data uses but do not have to ask for permission and are not required to notify patients of specific deals. “The patient doesn’t have absolute control. They don’t have much control,” Vanderbilt University Biomedical Ethics Professor Ellen Wright Clayton said. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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