The New York Times is reporting about a project to create a database of treatment data for HIV/AIDS patients. The idea is genius, HIV treatment is an evolving science and having a centralized database of results and possible treatments could push the field forward by leaps and bounds. There is a drawback, however: privacy.

Back in July of 2005, The Deal had a report about electronic medical records, and the privacy concerns being raised over the securing of this sensitive data. HIV/AIDS data is arguably the most sensitive of data, and there are people out there who would exploit this information. The Times article glosses over the security measures which would be taken to secure the data, stating, "Steps will be taken to keep the identities of the 15,000 patients in the project confidential." No word on what those steps may be.

The number of security breaches in recent years is alarming, it would be a horrible tragedy if some of these 15,000 names wound up on a list on the Internet somewhere, like the search results of 658,000 AOL users did earlier this year. Let's just hope the steps taken toward securing the data will be, at least, exhaustive. — Brian Ward

Go to story from The New York Times
Go to story from The Deal

Technorati tags: security.