Private and Confidential?

A history of concern
over the collection and use of patient
information
26 February 2015

5pm

Venue: Conference Centre Lecture Theatre (423-342)

Location: 22 Symonds Street
Host: School of Humanities
Contact info: Linda Bryder
Contact email: l.bryder@auckland.ac.nz
Public Lecture: School of Humanities

Dr Angus Ferguson, Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellow in Social

Sciences, University of Glasgow.
Recent policy developments within the UK, designed to gather together
patients primary healthcare information in centralised datasets and
facilitate greater data linkage and analysis, have provoked heated debate
over concerns regarding patient privacy and medical confidentiality.
In early 2014, newspaper reports of medical data being sold to insurance
companies, coupled with concerns regarding the adequacy of existing
governance structures tasked with oversight of research access to such
datasets, forced revisions of the proposals for, and delays in the
implementation of, the care.data scheme in England.
More generally, as technology changes the ways in which information is
collected, stored, shared and analysed, privacy/confidentiality concerns
are being raised in a variety of clinical and research contexts. While
undoubtedly significant, such concerns over medical confidentiality and
privacy are by no means new.
This talk will give an overview of the modern evolution of the boundaries
of medical confidentiality and privacy in Britain, illustrating ways in which
understandings and approaches have been shaped by individuals, interest
groups, controversial issues and contingent events over the past two
centuries.