Originally Posted by semtex

I think your position is quite reasonable. But have you considered that your physician may be just the "tip of the sword" in terms of where that information goes subsequent to your conversation with him? That's the aspect that worries me more than whatever personal biases my physician may have. There's a good chance that your responses to his (or her) interogatories are going to end up in some database somewhere, and you'll have no idea who's viewing it and for what purpose. It just so happens that I work in healthcare now. Specifically, I work in an area known as Data Governance. What data is it that my unit is governing? Personally identifiable data on everything from ER wait times to STDs to participation in high-risk behaviors (both sexual and non-sexual). Some of the information gathered in the databases I work with is blood-curdling. Well, I should say that it's potentially blood-curdling. You see, my job is to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. And my unit is also supposed to ensure that all personal identifiers are stripped out of the information before it is forwarded to statisticians for analytic purposes.

Question is, do you really want to place all your trust in a stranger like me to make sure that (a) your identity is properly cleansed from the records, and (b) the data doesn't ever fall into the wrong hands? Because I can tell you that your doctor isn't keeping your responses to himself. He's uploading them to regulatory agencies like mine. And I can also tell you that mistakes happen and breaches do occur. We're all human, after all.