Now we know how the National Enquirer was getting the scoop on celebrity medical records. A former employee at UCLA Medical Center pleaded guilty Monday to selling information from the medical records of entertainers and other high-profile patients.

Just hours before the first election polls opened across the United States, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin finally released a two-page “summary” of her medical records. Obviously, there appears to be something in her full medical records she didn’t want American voters to know and at this late date, many of us don’t care anymore. We just want her to pack up her bags and go back home to Alaska on Wednesday.

While the autorities are investigating a possible theft of personal identity information, including names, phone numbers, and in some cases social security numbers, of approximately 40,000 hospital patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, an article from JAMA looks at Data-Sharing in clinical trials for heart disease on when and how to share patient data, and when to suspend a study.

It seems that Britney Spears was not the only celebrity patient medical records of whom were improperly accessed and by the hospital employees. Recent privacy breaches at UCLA Medical Center have brought the issue of the privacy of patient medical records to national attention.

A new study to be published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows that one academic medical center recouped its investment in electronic health records within 16 months. The new analysis counters concerns of health care providers reluctant to invest in electronic medical records systems.