Deborah C. Peel

Dr. Deborah C. Peel is an American physician and national speaker on health privacy. She became active in privacy rights at the federal level in 1993 when she interpreted the Clinton Healthcare Initiative as requiring every doctor-patient encounter to be entered in a federal health database. She advocated first as an individual and later on behalf of state and national medical specialty organizations for patient control of access to medical records. She presents at national panels and Congressional briefings, has provided state and federal testimony, and is widely quoted in trade journals and the national press.

Citizens for Health vs. Leavitt

In 2002, she was a plaintiff in Citizens for Health v. Leavitt. Plaintiffs sought to restore what they perceived to be the "right of consent" which they contended was eliminated by the amendments to the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Ultimately the case lost at the appellate level and was not accepted by the Supreme Court in 2006. The case tried to show a need for a national consumer organization dedicated to restoring patient privacy.

Patient Privacy Rights

In 2004, Dr. Peel founded Patient Privacy Rights(PPR)^[1]. Its goal: to ensure that Americans control all access to their health records. PPR educates the public, healthcare and IT industries, the media, and Congress about the threats technology poses to Americans’ privacy rights.

Coalition for Patient Privacy

In 2006, Dr. Peel formed the Coalition for Patient Privacy.^[2] The bipartisan coalition of 50+ organizations urged Congress to add privacy protections to health IT legislation. The Coalition for Patient Privacy develops and garnered bipartisan support from a diverse group of consumer advocacy organization and a few individual signatories.

Controversy

Dr. Peel's opinions on patient privacy have provoked controversy as the Obama Administration moves forward with implementing Health Information Technology (HIT), including spending nearly $2 billion to encourage the adoption of electronic health records. Her statements that this will amount to government surveillance of all health information have recently ^[3] come under fire as being overstated and lacking in evidence to back them up.

Awards and honors

In August, 2007, Dr. Peel debuted at #4 of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.” Readers of the health care trade journal Modern Healthcare Magazine^[4] nominate and vote on the list every year. She was also elected one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" in 2008 and 2009.

References

1. ^ Patient Privacy Rights: Homepage
2. ^ Patient Privacy Rights: Coalition for Patient Privacy
3. ^ Health IT Privacy Committee
4. ^ Modern Healthcare Online

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Name	Peel, Deborah
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