Physician privacy concerns when disclosing patient data for public health purposes during a pandemic influenza outbreak

Background: Privacy concerns by providers have been a barrier to disclosing patient information for public health\ud purposes. This is the case even for mandated notifiable disease reporting. In the context of a pandemic it has been\ud argued that the public good should supersede an individual’s right to privacy. The precise nature of these provider\ud privacy concerns, and whether they are diluted in the context of a pandemic are not known. Our objective was to\ud understand the privacy barriers which could potentially influence family physicians’ reporting of patient-level\ud surveillance data to public health agencies during the Fall 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza outbreak.\ud Methods: Thirty seven family doctors participated in a series of five focus groups between October 29-31 2009.\ud They also completed a survey about the data they were willing to disclose to public health units. Descriptive\ud statistics were used to summarize the amount of patient detail the participants were willing to disclose, factors that\ud would facilitate data disclosure, and the consensus on those factors. The analysis of the qualitative data was based\ud on grounded theory.\ud Results: The family doctors were reluctant to disclose patient data to public health units. This was due to concerns\ud about the extent to which public health agencies are dependable to protect health information (trusting beliefs),\ud and the possibility of loss due to disclosing health information (risk beliefs). We identified six specific actions that\ud public health units can take which would affect these beliefs, and potentially increase the willingness to disclose\ud patient information for public health purposes.\ud Conclusions: The uncertainty surrounding a pandemic of a new strain of influenza has not changed the privacy\ud concerns of physicians about disclosing patient data. It is important to address these concerns to ensure reliable\ud reporting during future outbreaks.University of Ottawa Open Access Author Fun

DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION OF A MEASURE OF ECOPSYCHOLOGICAL SELF

ABSTRACT: This paper reports on a study involving the development and initial validation of a scale designed to assess the concept of ecopsychological self. This concept can be defined as the extent to which individuals identify with nature. Using a sample of 150 university students, an 11 item instrument, comprised of two subscales (nature inclusive self-concept and nature stewardship) was constructed through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques. The instrument was found to have adequate inter-item reliability and satisfactory convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Correlational and regression analyses found that the two subscales were significant predictors of mental and spiritual well-being. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings, limitations of the study, and directions for future research. For at least a century, concerns have been raised about the impact of civilization on the natural world (e.g., While ecopsychology shares an interest with a range of traditional psychological disciplines, most notably environmental psychology, it fundamentally differs from these areas due to ecopsychologists' subscription to the tenet that humans are integrally connected to nature. As stated by Roszak (1995) ''…ecopsychology proceeds from the assumption that at its deepest level the psyche remains sympathetically bonded to the Earth that mothered us into existence'' (p. 5). In the context of this assumption, human well-being is understood, at least in part, to be the product of people's acceptance of the inherent union between themselves and nature

Youth, Work, and Schooling in the Great Depression

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66533/2/10.1177_0272431685054007.pd

African American Culture and Hypertension Prevention

Abstract available at publisher's web site