A new study suggests that implementation of a health care law known as HIPAA is having a chilling effect on medical research.

Dr. Roberta Ness, a University of Pittsburgh researcher, found that about two-thirds of epidemiologists who responded to a national survey felt a HIPAA regulation known as the privacy rule has made research more difficult.

Only about one-fourth of respondents felt the rule enhanced study participants' confidentiality and privacy.

The findings, released today, will be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The privacy rule has made research more costly and time consuming," said Dr. Ness, who chairs the epidemiology department at the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health.

The Institute of Medicine commissioned the survey to help inform a committee studying the effects of the privacy rule, which was implemented in 2003. Epidemiologists were surveyed because their research often involves medical records and human subjects.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.