Health care has a problem. Well, of course, it has many problems, but one of them is that the various parties involved in the health care system can't agree on who we are. Twenty years ago HIPAA called for creation of unique patient identifiers to accomplish this task, but within two years Congress put this on hold until further notice, and we're still waiting. Everyone used to use social security numbers for this purpose, until we finally figured out the folly of that (especially since that number was never intended to be used as a national identification number). The private sector continues to clamor for federal action, while CHIME launched a National Patient ID Challenge in order to come up with solutions. News flash; we already have a unique, non-government-issued identifier: it's called a cell phone number...
patient privacy
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Need to improve Health IT systems security
Security researchers warn that intruders could exploit known gaps to steal patients’ records for use in identity theft schemes and even launch disruptive attacks that could shut down critical hospital systems. Read More »
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No Thanks, I Already Have a Number
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OpenEMR Achieves Complete Meaningful Use Certification with Release 5.0
OpenEMR, the most popular open source electronic health records (EHR) and medical practice management solution, has announced today that OpenEMR version 5.0 has achieved Complete ONC certification, through Infogard. This certification is vital for medical practices in the U.S. to comply with MACRA and participate in Medicare's Quality Payment Program. The Complete Meaningful Use Certification was the result of a community effort that spanned several years, involving over $200,000 in effort and code contributions. Read More »
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Patient Health Information Precariously Safeguarded, According to Privacy Analytics
According to a new infographic compiled by Ottawa data privacy company Privacy Analytics, costs associated with a data breach, including notification, legal fines, legal fees, forensics, PR, etc., amounts to approximately $208 per person. While data breaches across the board are damaging, from major corporate leaks like Target to member-based services like Ashley Madison, it’s the leaking of personal health information (PHI) that is most sensitive and which Privacy Analytics specializes in...
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Senator's Call For Reboot Of EHR Incentive Program Evokes Responses
The recent white paper released by six Republican Senators assessing federal progress promoting health information technology adoption and standards asked for reader feedback, and the healthcare industry responded. Read More »
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Strengthening Protection of Patient Medical Data
Americans seeking medical care expect a certain level of privacy. Indeed, the need for patient privacy is a principle dating back to antiquity, and is codified in U.S. law, most notably the Privacy Rule of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which establishes standards that work toward protecting patient health information. But the world of information is rapidly changing, and in this environment, U.S. rules fall precariously short in protecting our medical data...
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The Best Way to Share Health Records? An App in Patients’ Hands
Much has been written recently about information blocking—the inability or unwillingness of hospitals and doctors to share electronic data from our health records with one another. Lack of technical interoperability and regulations protecting security, privacy, and confidentiality are often blamed. But the reality is that technical barriers are falling. The same technology that enables your smartphone to pull sensitive financial data from your bank to pay your taxes or a taxi driver can be applied to your health care records. More importantly, the regulatory path to health records sharing is now open—the rules are already on the books.
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The Medicare Machine: Patient Details of 'Any Australian' for Sale on Darknet
A darknet trader is illegally selling the Medicare patient details of any Australian on request by “exploiting a vulnerability” in a government system, raising concerns that a health agency may be seriously compromised. An investigation by Guardian Australia can reveal that a darknet vendor on a popular auction site for illegal products claims to have access to any Australian’s Medicare card details and can supply them on request...
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The Rise of 'Technology-Enabled' Clinical Research Companies
Eric Hodgins, senior vice president, research and development technology solutions at QuintilesIMS, told us there are a number of dynamics “significantly transforming the industry and driving an increase in technology-enabled clinical research.” Notably, there are two macro trends: the pace of innovation in scientific research and the explosion of technological advancements...
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This EHR Mess We’re In
Dr. Matthew Hahn blogs about the current state of today’s EHR’s and rightly points out many of the same reasons that I have identified in my previous posts...There are several other important concerns that have been left unanswered by our current Health IT offerings...The solution Dr. Hahn proposed is one that hinges on the hope that government will abandon MU (unlikely given this political climate), and create a whole new EHR development program based on a national competition and then for the government to subsidize the cost of that winner EHR for physicians to use...
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This Little-Known Firm Is Getting Rich Off Your Medical Data
You may never have heard of it, but IMS Health knows an awful lot about your medical history. A global company based in Danbury, Connecticut, IMS IMS 1.58% buys bulk data from pharmacy chains such as CVS CVS 0.72% , doctor’s electronic record systems such as Allscripts, claims from insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and from others who handle your health information...
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Thousands Of NFL Players' Medical Records Stolen From Skins Trainer
In late April, the NFL recently informed its players, a Skins athletic trainer’s car was broken into. The thief took a backpack, and inside that backpack was a cache of electronic and paper medical records for thousands of players, including NFL Combine attendees from the last 13 years. That would encompass the vast majority of NFL players, and for them, it’s a worrying breach of privacy; for the NFL, it’s potentially a costly violation of medical privacy laws.Last month the league alerted the players’ union to the theft...
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U.K. Health Service Sold Patient Data To Drug Companies
Some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies have purchased patient data from the United Kingdom's National Health Service, according to a new registry, the London Telegraph reports. The registry comes shortly after the Telegraph reported that the NHS Information Centre improperly sold hospital data covering 47 million patients over 13 years to the insurance industry.
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Using Digital Ledger Technology To Put Physicians Back In Control
Our healthcare system is failing. It costs more and has overall worse outcomes than any other industrialized nation. It is failing because those on the front lines of healthcare - the physicians and patients- have no say in how the system is run. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) - otherwise known as blockchain - has the ability to change that. DLT allows for secure direct peer to peer (In healthcare this means patient to doctor and doctor to doctor) communication and data transfer. No more storage of private information and transactions on centralized data capturing systems like electronic health records platforms.
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VA Deploying mHealth Apps To Give Veterans Quicker, Easier Data Access
The Veterans Affairs Department plans to debut the first two of several mHealth apps providing veterans easier and quicker access to healthcare data via smartphones and tablets sometime early this fall...
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