The Effect of the New Federal Medical-Privacy Rule on Research

Abstract

The American people generally support and encourage medical research, but they also place a high priority on the privacy of personal medical information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 imposed new restraints on the use of medical information, with the intent of protecting patients' privacy. A side effect of the act is its application to clinical research. In a Legal Issues in Medicine article, Annas discusses the legal underpinnings and implications of the act, and in a Sounding Board article, Kulynych and Korn argue that the act will make the conduct of clinical research more burdensome and costly.