News: HIPAA Rules Further Clarified for Medical Archivists

Archivists with medical information in their collections should become familiar with the new rules regarding the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which will go into effect this March.

Historic records from hospitals or the personal papers of health professionals may contain information regarding patients' health. Many medical archives are not currently repositories for patient records, which are under the purview of departments like Health Information Management which must adhere to strict privacy guidelines. But legacy collections have often been part of an institution's collections for decades, sometimes a century or more. Leather-bound patient ledgers from 150 years ago can be a boon to any researcher interested in the history of medicine for a certain era or location. 

Thankfully, the new HIPAA rules from the Department of Health & Human Services provide a bit more guidance for archivists and historians who are not interested in current medical records, but those of deceased individuals.

These modifications are now available online. Archivists, historians, and researchers interested in historic medical records should pay particularly close attention to Section 164.502(f)--Period of Protection for Decedent Information under Protected Health Information About Decedents. Privacy rules will now cover health records up to fifty years after an individual's death. Please see the link below to learn more about this rule and possible exceptions and how they might affect your collection or research.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/01/25/2013-01073/modifications-to-the-hipaa-privacy-security-enforcement-and-breach-notification-rules-under-the#h-203

 

Event: CAMA Medical Symposium 2012

This Friday, October 26, the Chicago Area Medical Archivists are hosting their tenth CAMA Medical Symposium. Please join us for this wonderful program.

Please RSVP to RNSMS@northwestern.edu or 312.503.1913 

Lurie Children's Hospital 
225 East Chicago Avenue
16th  Floor Conference Room
9 a.m. Coffee Hour
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. – Presentations
12 – 1:15 p.m. – Lunch on your own
1:30 – 4:30 p.m. - Presentations 

PROGRAM 

History of the University of Chicago Hospitals
Mindy Schwartz, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Dr. Lucy A. Gaynor, Advocate for Children—Nanking China, 1892-1912
Anatomy, Pathology and Infection Risks of Foot Binding
Mary Groll, MD, Instructor of Pediatrics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
Amy Whalen, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

History of the American College of Surgeons
David Nahrwold, MD, Professor Emeritus of Surgery 
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Davis’ Hollywood Connection
Diane Friedman, RN, MSN, Instructor
Marian University School of Nursing, Indianapolis Indiana

History of Children’s Hospital
Stanford Shulman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

   

News: Heather Stecklein to bid farewell to Chicago in July

Important CAMA News: The Chicago Area Medical Archivists will be losing one of its long-standing members very soon.

Heather leads a tour of local medical archives during the Society of American Archivists conference, 2007

Heather Stecklein, MLS, MA, has served as archivist at Rush University Medical Center since 2005, but will be leaving Chicago in July. 

I would like to announce to CAMA that she has accepted a position as University Archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Also, she will serve as a Director of the Wisconsin Historical Society's Area Research Center, managing the historic records of three local counties.

Heather's last day at the Rush Archives will be Friday, July 6, and she will be moving to Menomonie with her family soon after. 

Heather with the illustrious Studs Terkel, 2007

Heather has been actively involved in the Chicago Area Medical Archivists since she began her work at Rush. She served as CAMA Web Moderator from 2006 to 2007 and CAMA President from 2007 to 2009. Heather has been part of the Chicago Area Archivists Steering Committee for the past six years.

We all wish her well in her new position and new home. 

Sharing the history of Rush as part of tours of Rush's new Tower building, 2011

As for the Rush Archives, it will always soldier on. As assistant archivist at Rush, I am particularly grateful to Heather for all of the work she has done over the years. The many projects we have accomplished during our five years together would not have been possible without our sharing the Rush core values of Innovation, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. It takes a special camaraderie to not only survive, but thrive in a basement every day with one other person for so many years. We may not have had windows, but we had vision.

Nathalie Wheaton and Heather Stecklein: A force to be reckoned with...

- Good luck, Heather! -