A recent thread on Groklaw has raised some questions about the legality of Microsoft EULAs with regard to handling patient information in the UK, due to the Data Protection Act as it applies to Medical Data.

I’ve asked for information from my own family members in the Medical profession for information on the matter, but does anyone here have any knowledge of the subject or input they would like to make?

In addition is this a possible field into which GNU/Linux and FOSS Medical Data programs can make significant headway, given MS’ increasingly intrusive licenses?

Finally, what other ethical considerations exist in the field of Medical Software, and how do the two software models approach these issues?