Source: NYTimes

States and V.A. at Odds on Cancer Data


By GINA KOLATA
Published: October 10, 2007

Until recently, the nation’s cancer surveillance program was humming along. In every state, investigators were getting reports from every hospital describing every cancer patient they had seen.

The data, which include the name, address, age, race and medical history of patients, are used to compile cancer rates. They also are used to investigate survival and other issues, like unusual cancer clusters and whether patients’ experiences are different depending on their racial or economic group.

While other hospitals are required by state laws to submit data, Veterans Affairs hospitals are not. And now, for the first time, veterans hospitals have stopped providing information on their cancer patients. The concern, the Veterans Affairs Department says, is protecting patient privacy. The department has set up a new national directive setting conditions for using patients’ personal information and has said it cannot provide data unless and until states sign it.
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