AFFIRMATIVE — MEDICAL — IMPACTS 225

OTHER HARMS

FEAR OF LOSING MEDICAL PRIVACY RUINS THE ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS OF MEDICAL RECORDS

JANE E. ALLEN, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1999, SECTION: Health; Part S; Page 1; TITLE: A NEW PUSH IS ON FOR PATIENTS' PRIVACY LAW// acs-EE2001

Betsy Imholz, director of Consumers Union's office in San Francisco, said that if patients don't feel safe sharing information with their doctor, their medical records will be less complete and reliable, putting patients at risk of improper treatment.

Privacy advocates' top priority is encouraging insurers, hospitals and doctors to protect patients' privacy without diminishing the value of the medical information they gather.

PRIVACY IS ESSENTIAL TO THE WORK OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

HAROLD W. WYLIE Jr., Director, Baltimore-Washington Institute For Psychoanalysis, The Washington Post, August 2, 1999, SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A18, TITLE: Protecting Privacy // acs-EE2001

As a physician and psychoanalyst, I am especially concerned about the issue of access to the sensitive, extremely personal material that my patients communicate to me. Confidentiality is essential to any mental health professional's work. The guarantee of privacy for a patient to express wishes, dreams, fears is the sine qua non of any effective psychological treatment in which the trained listener understands Plato's dictum, "The virtuous man is content to dream what the wicked man does."