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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/28495
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| Title: | Privacy Protection and Technology Diffusion: The Case of Electronic
Medical Records |
| Authors: | Miller, Amalia R. - University of Virginia
Tucker, Catherine E. - MIT Sloan School of Business |
| Keywords: | Technology Diusion, Privacy Protection, Health-care IT, Network
Externalities, Hospitals |
| Issue Date: | 2007 |
| Series/Report no.: | NET Institute Working Paper;07-16 |
| Abstract: | Some policymakers argue that consumers need legal protection of their
privacy before they adopt interactive technologies. Others contend that
privacy regulations impose costs that deter adoption. We contribute to
this growing debate by quantifying the effect of state privacy
regulation on the diffusion of Electronic Medical Record technology
(EMR). EMR allows medical providers to store and exchange patient
information using computers rather than paper records. Hospitals may not
adopt EMR if patients feel their privacy is not safeguarded by
regulation. Alternatively, privacy protection may inhibit adoption if
hospitals cannot benefit from exchanging patient information with one
another. In the US, medical privacy laws that restrict the ability of
hospitals to disclose patient information vary across time and across
states. We exploit this variation to explore how privacy laws affect
whether hospitals adopt EMR. Our results suggest that inhibition of
EMR's network benefits reduces hospital adoption by up to 25 percent. We
find similar evidence when we control for the endogeneity of state laws
using variation in signups to the 'Do Not Call' list. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/28495 |
| Appears in Collections: | NET Institute Working Papers Series
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