“You look so stressed out. What’s wrong?” I ask my patient.
With tears streaming down her face, she responds, “I accidentally group texted my epilepsy diagnosis to my department at work including a co-worker who is the company’s town crier."
“Maybe it’ll be OK,” I offer.
“But someone I was interested in cancelled his date with me after the text. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“These texts and emails are so out of control," I empathize.
She looks at me. “They really are.”
My patient’s story is incredibly common. It’s amazing how much we accidentally share about ourselves even when innocently using popular health apps on our smartphones. In a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers assessed the sharing of health information on diabetes apps commonly used on mobile phones and tablets. Eighty-one percent of these apps have no privacy policies.
Even so, only four of 41 apps with privacy policies bothered to ask users for permission to share their data. Nineteen of these divulged data like insulin levels along with tracking and medication information to third parties without the users' knowledge. This is just like group texting confidential health information to strangers.
Even in 2016, health information can be stigmatizing and sharing it can work against you. Maybe you don’t want your coworkers or boss or potential romantic partner to know about your depression, a previous cancer or any other condition for that matter.
Privacy is a patient right with its origins in the Hippocratic oath. If I as a doctor shared my patients' private health information likes apps do, I‘d be fired in a heartbeat. We can’t give health apps a pass on patient privacy. This needs to be addressed, now.
In the meantime, if you’re going to share any health information, whether by text, email or on an app, beware-– you may be unwittingly telling your secrets to an electronic town crier and there’s no advice or cure that can undo it.
Dr. Joseph Sirven is the Chairman of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic