Abstract
In 2011, the US Supreme Court decided
Sorrell
v.
IMS Health, Inc
., a case that addressed the mining of large aggregated databases and the sale of prescriber data for marketing prescription drugs. The court struck down a Vermont law that required data mining companies to obtain permission from individual providers before selling prescription records that included identifiable physician prescription information to pharmaceutical companies for drug marketing. The decision was based on constitutional free speech protections rather than data sharing considerations.
Sorrell
illustrates challenges at the intersection of biomedical informatics, public health, constitutional liberties, and ethics. As states, courts, regulatory agencies, and federal bodies respond to
Sorrell
, informaticians’ expertise can contribute to more informed, ethical, and appropriate policies.
