Data breaches in the news have some patients keeping the lid on health data when it comes to sharing with their providers, according to survey findings.
In a survey of 750 adults, security researcher Stephen Cobb asked whether respondents had withheld information from their healthcare providers over concerns about the security or privacy of their medical records. Though nearly 87 percent of respondents said they had not withheld data, the 13 percent that attested to doing so represents a significantly larger number than previous ONC estimates, Mr. Cobb wrote on the WeLiveSecurity blog.
"If further research bears out the higher number from my survey, it could be argued that the large medical data breaches of 2015 have doubled patient concerns," Mr. Cobb wrote. "Given the potential for patient withholding to undermine diagnosis and treatment, not to mention medical research, I think many folks will find these numbers worrying."
Mr. Cobb is currently performing follow up research to determine the medical importance of the information that patients withhold. He suggests that if even half of patients withhold data that is medically important, that could have significant implications to effective healthcare delivery.
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