ABSTRACT
Medical records contain some of the most personal and private information known about individuals, although some parts of medical records are clearly more sensitive than others. Most patients consider a sore throat, for example, to be less private than the discovery of a sexually transmitted disease or a genetic abnormality. For this reason, patients may be willing to allow certain parts of their medical records to be shared quite widely, such as for research and education purposes, but want access to other parts to be strictly controlled. Is it beneficial to adopt a system of this kind, whereby different types of medical information are treated differently?
