Patient Consent and the Commercialization of Lab Data

When I tell people about the growing commercial trade in anonymized patient data from sources including electronic health records, insurance claims data, and prescriptions, the sale of lab data from companies such as Quest and LabCorp sparks the greatest surprise and concern. The more information data miners aggregate into patient dossiers, the greater the possibility of re-identification, especially as computing power increases.12 Such information could be exploited to target medical marketing, deny life insurance or bank loans, embarrass someone, or steal an identity to obtain medical services.