Privacy, Confidentiality, and Health Research. William Lowrance.

Abstract

Privacy, Confidentiality and Health Research by William W. Lowrance has appeared like ‘manna’ from heaven. Indeed, discussions both in Europe on the proposed Directive1 and in the US on the Advance Notice,2 have catapulted the topic of privacy protection in biomedical research into the policy and political arenas. Unfortunately, these proposed reforms both show signs of anaemic and ill-conceived ideas that if adopted as such will only exacerbate the current crisis of confusion, complexity and contradictions. Hence, the welcome and timely arrival of this thoughtful, well-researched and reasonable tome. Although not discussing either of these initiatives per se, this book certainly should be read before their further deliberation or adoption. I propose to highlight some of its outstanding contributions before providing a descriptive view of its contents.