Video: ONC’s Scott Weinstein outlines the Data Segmentation for Privacy (DS4P) initiative

After meeting with addiction treatment professionals at last year's NCAD meeting NCAD 2013, a fellow in the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (part of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT), offered a series of comments reflecting on the importance of confidentiality for addiction treatment, the role of CFR 42, Part 2 in protecting confidential patient information, and current efforts by the Office of the National Coordinator to pilot a concept called Data Segmentation for Privacy (DS4P).  This approach, described more fully in a Behavioral Healthcare article featuring Weinstein, would utilize a new category of data in an electronic Continuity of Care Document (CCD) to control access to "specially protected" patient information, such as the treatment-related information generated at addiction treatment centers covered by CFR 42, Part 2, according to the consent of the patient, as required by the law.  

Approaches such as DS4P, it is hoped, will enable the sharing of interoperable electronic health records between medical and addiction treatment providers in accord with the requirements of confidentiality law.