Targeted junkmail "from" your GP?

[Wendy M. Grossman]

Roland Perry wrote:

> I have no idea what they are proposing to do, but in principle it would 
> be relatively straightforward for them to have anonymised patient 
> records, and then send a message back to the NHS saying "please forward 
> the following invitation to patient number XYZ", where only the NHS/PCT 
> etc knows that patient's name or address. They could even send the 
> invite to the patient's GP, who could then call the patient in to 
> discuss the issue.

Research indicates that re-identifying supposedly anonymized records is 
not all that difficult.

wg