Is the Glasgow Coma Scale score protected health information?The effect of new United States regulations (HIPAA) on completion of screening logs in emergency research trials

Excerpt

The United States Department of Health and Human Services published final modifications to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in August 2002. Full compliance was required as of 14 April 2003. This “privacy rule” regulates the way in which covered entities such as health care groups, organizations, and businesses should manage individually identifiable health information, known as protected health information (PHI). The HIPAA act is directly relevant to researchers as it establishes the conditions under which covered entities can use or disclose PHI [1]. It pertains to individually identifiable health information transmitted or maintained by electronic or any medium. Individually identifiable health information may relate to the past, present, or future physical health or mental health or condition of an individual; it includes demographic data, the provision of health care, payment for the provision of health care, and any other information for which there is a reasonable basis to believe that it might be used to identify the individual. The privacy rule is a response to public concern over potential abuse of the privacy of health information. …