Healthcare web privacy policy management: a UK to USA comparison

摘要

As we move towards fully computerised healthcare institutions with a web presence, ethical challenges of e-health come increasingly to the fore. One of those ethical challenges, that of privacy protection, is of principal importance for our patients when using services for e-health. This paper investigates practices in the UK and USA related to web privacy policy. The study presents a unique perspective on the similarities and differences between healthcare and healthcare-related organisations in the two countries. In particular, it is useful to look at how privacy policies have changed the introduction of post-HIPAA as an indication to the challenges faced by UK organisations over the next few years. The hope is that raising awareness of these results will drive forward changes in UK privacy policy management, similar to those experienced with information quality.