Trustees to examine sale of Masterfile info

The selling of physicians' personal data is the subject of an inquiry into the AMA Masterfile.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. July 9/16, 2001.

Chicago -- Delegates to the AMA's Annual Meeting directed the Board of Trustees to study the Association's practice of selling physicians' personal data and to report its findings at the Interim Meeting later this year.

The practice, which generates $23 million in revenue a year, was the subject of a resolution from the California delegation.

Delegates argued that the Masterfile was not secure and that the AMA should take steps to protect it. They were concerned that hackers could break into and alter the database, making it easy for physicians' identities to be stolen and for fraud to be committed against them.

The resolution also would have required the AMA to obtain physicians' permission before selling physicians' confidential data. The database includes physicians' Social Security and DEA numbers, home and office addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates and medical schools they graduated from.

"I don't want you to sell my DEA number and I don't want you to sell my profile without my permission," said Larry Bedard, MD, an alternate delegate from the American College of Emergency Physicians from California. "[I]f you're going to do it, you ought to indemnify me or any other physician for any economic damage that they incur from selling their personal data." [...]

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