September 22, 2011
From The Kansas City Star:
In a letter to key members of Congress and to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, six prominent journalism organizations are asking that a database containing statistical information on doctors’ malpractice histories be made public again.
The National Practitioner Data Bank took its public use file off its website Sept. 1 after it learned that The Kansas City Star was able to glean information about a Johnson County neurosurgeon from anonymous data in the files. Previously, other newspapers have identified doctors from the public use file without repercussions.