data mining IMS Health v. Ayotte IMS Health v. Sorrell Medical Privacy Medical Record Privacy
Federal Appeals Court Overturns Vermont Medical Privacy Law
The Second Circuit Court of appeals has ruled that a Vermont privacy law violates the First Amendment. The law regulated data mining companies that sell or use doctors' prescribing records containing personal information on patients. EPIC, and several privacy technology experts, had filed a "friend of the court" brief in support of the law. Writing in dissent and siding with EPIC, Judge Debra Ann Livingston said that the majority reached the "wrong result," creating "precedent likely to have pernicious broader effects" on medical privacy case law. A similar medical privacy law was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. For more information, see EPIC: IMS Health v. Sorrell and EPIC: IMS Health v. Ayotte