Congressman's data on stolen laptop

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he was among the 3,000 heart study patients whose medical information was on a laptop stolen this year.

Barton, ranking minority member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general to investigate the theft of the unencrypted laptop from the car of a National Institutes of Health researcher, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Barton said his involvement in the study stems from a heart attack he suffered in December 2005.

The laptop was stolen Feb. 23 while the researcher's car was parked in a Germantown, Md., parking lot, the newspaper said.