Your private health details may already be online

Imagine my surprise when, in the course of doing research for this story, I stumbled upon my own personal health information online.

There it was in black, white, and hypertext blue. My annual mammograms; the visits to the podiatrist for the splinter in my foot; the kind of birth control I use -- it was all on my health insurance company's Web site. And that's not all: The prescriptions drugs I use were listed on the Web site where I get my prescription drug insurance.

I had no idea this was all on the World Wide Web. Welcome to the 21st century, says Dr. Steven Schwaitzberg, associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a medical informatics expert.