Letter From the Editor
Dear Readers:
Welcome to the newest issue of Ethics and Human Rights Issues Update — Spring 2004! The newest update focuses on the issues related to Confidentiality and the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The feature article and the accompanying slides and case scenarios are contributed by two of our Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board Members, Susan Dickey, PhD, RN, C, and Dana Bjarnason, MA, RN, CAN along with her colleague Cheryl Vaiani, PhD, RN. Susan’s article gives an overview of the HIPPA legislation along with a discussion of the emerging ethical issues. The slide presentation and case studies by Dana and Cheryl are meant to be a helpful resource to both nurses with questions as well as those who need a resource for presenting this material to others.
This issue also includes a helpful listing of major topic headings and subheading for searching on privacy, patient care, and HIPAA which readers might find helpful as they search for additional information and references related to patient privacy and the HIPAA regulations. A link is also provided to the ANA Continuing Education Module on HIPAA, which might be of interest to some readers both for content, and continuing education credits.
I look forward to seeing some of our readers at the upcoming House of Delegates and Biennial Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota from June 25-29. At the convention several informative sessions on Genetics as well as many other topics of interest will be offered. Once again, thank you for your interest in this online newsletter publication and please contact me by phone (202)651-7054 or e-mail (lbadzek@ana.org) at any time with your questions, comments or suggestions for articles.
Sincerely,
Laurie Badzek, RN, MS, JD, LLM
Director of the Center for Ethics and Human Rights