Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #119797

Mark Barnes, JD, LLM, Ropes & Gray, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111-0087, 212-497-3635, mark.barnes@ropesgray.com

More controversial than the question of disclosing personal health information in deidentied format back to the community has been the question of when, if ever, public health records should be disclosed for public purposes unrelated to health such as homeland security, law enforcement, immigration, or social welfare. Where public health officials become aware of a threat, they may have no alternative but to call upon the police to intervene to enforce the public health mandate, such as the prevention of an imminent threat of infectious disease. Far different are occasions when those charged with law enforcement, immigration control, or the social welfare system seek to use public health data to fulfill their own functions. They may argue that public security and fidelity to law are just as important as public health. For example, sharing the names of all reported cases of anthrax during a bioterrorist attack might help law enforcement identify those who disseminated the spores and bring them to justice. However, public health advocates have often insisted on an unbreachable wall of separation. Such disclosures, they have argued, could do irreparable damage to surveillance activities predicated on the widely held assumption that case reporting may only be used to protect the public health. This paper will set into relief the tensions between an individual's right to privacy and the public good as it critically assesses the limits of the public health mandate to protect the community.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss contemporary controversies regarding the use of personally identifiable data
• Discuss ethical and regulatory frameworks governing the use of personally identifiable data that does not clearly fall within the scope of human subjects research

Keywords: Surveillance, History

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.