Data Practices Commission forwards three bill proposals.

Byline: Kevin Featherly

After spending the summer and fall batting around ideas, the joint House-Senate Legislative Commission on Data Practices has recommended three pieces of legislation to their colleagues.

One proposal deals with consumers' genetic privacy. Another grapples with patients' private medical information more generally. The third tweaks the statute to redefine what legally constitutes a reportable data breach.

A fourth issuethe use of the potent sedative ketamine by first responders to subdue out-of-control patientswas not on the final list. The commission debated that issue on Nov. 16.

Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, said then that he thinks the state needs some kind of new law to make sure law enforcement and first responders can't collude and make unwitting patients take the drug.

That issue blew up last summer when reports surfaced that Minneapolis police repeatedly asked Hennepin County first responders to administer the tranquilizer to agitated detainees. A later report said Hennepin Healthcare enrolled patient into clinical trials of the drug without consent. After that, the hospital suspended its ketamine study.

Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, the commission's chair, decided not to push for legislation on that issue after conversations with first responders, including Rep. Jim Newberger, R-Becker, a professional paramedic. Some patients are so agitated that they need to be sedated, she said.

"I think there are instances where people do get out of control and you have to get them under control or they will beat somebody up or harm somebody," she said. "So there are two sides to that story."

Her concern in bringing the matter to commission was that people were being subjected to research without consent. But in testimony, she said, the commission learned federal law allows for that.

Another reason that only three recommendations moved forward after half a year's work is that commissioners couldn't meet as often as Scott hoped over the interim between legislative sessions. "The elections got in the way," she said.

Genetic testing

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies would be regulated more strictly in Minnesota if that recommendation moves forward.

At their Dec. 7 meeting, members heard testimony from Kathy Hibbs, chief legal and regulatory officer for the genetic testing company 23andMe. Her company offers two main products: an ancestry test and an enhanced test that both pinpoints ancestry and identifies genetic...