X-Message-Number: 3742 Date: 25 Jan 95 14:04:14 EST From: Michael Riskin <> Subject: Medical Case Histories During some recent interchange on this forum between Dave Cosenza and Mike Darwin, the issue of the relevance of personal and psychological data on medical case histories came up. I believe that Mike Darwin is 100% correct in stating that any medical record, to be of value for a multitude of purposes, must include personal and psychological data. But I also believe that sidesteps the issue at hand. The factor of confidentiality, and who is the holder of privilege, is quite relevant and is a different issue. It is my current opinion that disclosure of such information on a public forum like cryonet violates commonly (and justified) accepted principles of patient confidentiality in the medical and psychological community, unless a "consent to release" has been executed. I vaguely recall, but cannot come up with the specifics, of a situation perhaps a year or so ago when the identity and details of a patients' suspension was accidentally disclosed on cryonet. Does anyone remember this case? I believe it was a patient suspended by either Alcor or BPI and I seem to recall apologies being made at that time. Was that a similiar or different set of circumstances to that which we currently are discussing? Michael Riskin Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3742