Challenging themes in American health information privacy and the public's health: Historical and modern assessments

This article discusses the premise of balancing and the device of informed consent as featured in the HIPAA Privacy Rule, assessing the perceptual difficulties underlying these concepts for public health authorities. Like many health information privacy laws, the Privacy Rule draws upon the enumerated need to respect individual autonomous control of personal health information while attempting to balance communal goods in the collection and dissemination of health information. We suggest rebalancing individual and communal interests in identifiable health data to deemphasize notions of informed consent for disclosures for public health purposes.