Are you concerned about the safety of your medical records as it relates to privacy? You should be -- medical records are among the most sensitive records there are.

So, it comes as no surprise to many of us that newer federal patient privacy rules are starting to affect medical research. Patients are becoming harder to recruit and their medical records are even tougher to gain access to.

Is this good or bad? If patients voluntarily know that they'll be part of medical research and give access to records after knowing of all the privacy implications, so be it. Is this generally the case, though?