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[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think this sort of system is perfect for implementation by the NSA.

The way I analogize it is if a researcher (under the appropriate waiver of authorization by an IRB, of course) wants to look for patients with XYZ diseases in a particular database owned by a HIPAA covered entity. The database query goes through ALL of the medical records, but only pulls out the patients with XYZ disease for the researcher's review.

The savvy IRB coordinator makes sure that the waiver of authorization covers ALL of the patients in the database, not just the patients in the database with XYZ disease in the database, even though researcher never saw the medical records that weren't hits, because the protected health information was technically used for the researcher's purpose and not for Treatment, Payment or Healthcare Operations.

A federal judge may not be as willing to grant a warrant for that kind of broad search, as the IRB was willing to grant the waiver of authorization.

(I can take this analogy further into the fascinating world of HIPAA and human subject research, but then I'd be called a geek by a variety of people, including and especially, my boyfriend.)

You have a boyfriend?