The overall thrust of the HIPAA legislation is to protect the privacy of the individual receiving health care within the United State of America. Specifically, it addresses the issue of maintaining control over personal information obtained during the delivery of care.
The Hoolux Medical system employs technology which uses a camera to anonymously determine the gender and approximate age of an individual looking at the screen when an advertisement is being played.
The technology used does not, at any point, capture, record or in any way keep or maintain digital images or digital video. The system is specifically designed to operate in real time to anonymously determine the gender and approximate age of the viewer using a sophisticated algorithm which analyses the facial features of the viewer, without ever recording images or video.
Furthermore, the system is designed so as to prevent any access to the camera by third party software and any tampering with the system is immediately notified to the central management centre where it is investigated.
In summary, the Hoolux Medical system does not obtain, maintain or record any identifiable information about the viewer. It is guaranteed by Hoolux Medical to be completely anonymous and therefore is completely excluded from the applicability of the HIPAA standards.
The following is an extract from the relevant HIPAA standards:
Subpart E—Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information
§ 164.500 Applicability.
(a) Except as otherwise provided herein, the standards, requirements, and implementation specifications of this subpart apply to covered entities with respect to protected health information.
(b) Health care clearinghouses must comply with the standards, requirements, and implementation specifications as follows:
(1) When a health care clearinghouse creates or receives protected health information as a business associate of another covered entity, the clearinghouse must comply with:
(i) Section 164.500 relating to applicability;
(ii) Section 164.501 relating to definitions;
(iii) Section 164.502 relating to uses and disclosures of protected health information, except that a clearinghouse is prohibited from using or disclosing protected health information other than as permitted in the business associate contract under which it created or received the protected health information;
(iv) Section 164.504 relating to the organizational requirements for covered entities;
(v) Section 164.512 relating to uses and disclosures for which individual authorization or an opportunity to agree or object is not required, except that a clearinghouse is prohibited from using or disclosing protected health information other than as permitted in the Business associate contract under which it created or received the protected health information;
All references in the section above refer to “identifiable health information”. The Hoolux System does not “identify” any information about any viewer, nor is it possible to do so, as the system does not record any images or video in its operation. Therefore, the Hoolux System is completely excluded from the applicability of the HIPAA standards.
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