FTC Commissioner Julie Brill emphasized telemedicine, data de-identification...

conference. While discussing the FTC’s working relationship with other federal agencies, Brill brought up the commission’s overlapping healthcare data security jurisdiction. “I think there will be a lot of interesting things coming up around telemedicine,” she said. Siloed privacy laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act will be less effective in this data-driven economy, Brill said. “This is information that doesn’t know any silos.” A number of privacy experts have called on Congress to give the FTC sole authority over healthcare data security. Brill also extolled the virtues of FTC Chief Technologist Latanya Sweeney. “She’s a de-identification expert,” Brill said. “We're all hoping to work more deeply with her on how we can provide guidance, best practices and information to industry.” In a Thursday Q-and-A at the conference, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez also highlighted Sweeney’s upcoming de-identification work (CD March 7 p13). Brill said “we don’t have her for very long,” so the commission will “milk her for everything we can get while we do.” Sweeney is on leave from Harvard University while at the FTC (http://bit.ly/O3rOBG). Brill also stressed the degree to which the FTC is involved in ongoing safe harbor improvement discussions. She and Ramirez meet frequently with their European counterparts, Brill said. “I'm a big believer in playing well during a standoff,” she joked. As part of the ongoing improvements to safe harbor, Brill said she would like to see alternative dispute resolution fees abolished. “Why a consumer would have to pay to have their dispute resolved to me is just ... “ she said, pausing. “We gotta get beyond that.” Brill also said she would like safe harbor to eventually include “some form of accountability mechanisms.” That move “would give people more comfort, she said. These two issues don’t “need to be negotiated,” she said, calling them “low-hanging fruit.”