To the Editor: I write to clarify the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC’s) role in supporting the dissemination of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth), which regulates information privacy, and to correct some statements made by Handelsman and colleagues in their Viewpoint article.1
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- National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra, ACT.
Correspondence:
- 1. Handelsman DJ, Turner LA, Conway AJ. Doctors breaching patient privacy: Orwell redux. Med J Aust 2011; 194: 403-404. <MJA full text>
- 2. National Health and Medical Research Council and Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Use and disclosure of genetic information to a patient’s genetic relatives under section 95AA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Guidelines for health practitioners in the private sector. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2009. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/publications/synopses/e96.pdf (accessed Mar 2011).
- 3. National Health and Medical Research Council. Medical genetic testing: information for health professionals. Canberra: NHMRC, 2010. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/e99syn.htm (accessed Mar 2011).
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