If Deborah Peel, M.D., has her way, there will be no national electronic health and medical record system without a guarantee of patient privacy and confidentiality (see Physicians Cite Multiple Roadblocks Hindering EMR Adoption).

“I would argue that the only way we will ever have a trusted health IT [information technology] system is if people absolutely know that their records will not be used without their consent, or stolen or mined,” she told Psychiatric News.

And so in a political environment in which many were inclined to think that privacy had vanished into cyberspace,Peel and the organization she helped create, Patient Privacy Rights, have for the past three years been convincing legislators that privacy and confidentiality make up the foundation of a truly effective electronic medical record (EMR) system.