The New Zealand Herald reports a controversy has erupted over a database containing the medical information of 800,000 patients. Four health care IT companies in New Zealand and Australia have reported the issue to the New Zealand privacy commissioner, arguing the practice may be in violation of the NZ Health Information Privacy Code. The companies allege ProCare Health was placing sensitive health information into one large database. In a letter to the privacy commissioner, the IT companies stated, "At a time when attitudes towards patient privacy are shifting in favour of giving greater protections to the individual, here is an organisation that has no direct patient relationship asking doctors to help it amass all the patient records it can get access to." ProCare, however, is defending its practice, saying it only collected data after receiving patient consent. 
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