UK report: health care too protective of patient data.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

A landmark report on patient information in health and social care in the United Kingdom has raised serious concerns about the balance between protecting the confidentiality of patient data and sharing to improve care, according to The Guardian.

"Our conclusion is that the balance isn't right," wrote Dame Fiona Caldicott, who authored the report. "People have become over-concerned about protecting confidentiality."

The UK's former health secretary commissioned Caldicott, a highly respected psychiatrist and psychotherapist, to examine the issue in 2012 following a report from the National Health Service (NHS) Future Forum that identified information governance as an impediment to sharing information, even if sharing would be in the patient's best interest.

Caldicott contends that much of the problem can be attributed to a lack of public education. "While there are professionals who are familiar with the issue of confidentiality, data sharing, and the various systems in place at the moment, we are not sure that the public...