In the last round of bills to pass through Congress, we saw a slate of healthcare reform acts, as well as a stimulus package, which was designed to help jumpstart President Obama’s efforts to encourage for more affordable healthcare.
One of the provisions introduced in an aforementioned bill calls for new HIPAA regulations and advanced security protocols for patient information. These regulations significantly impact the ways that technology companies have been developing apps and software for hospitals and doctors’ offices.
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Posted in mHealth, Patient privacy, Regulation, Security
Regrettably, a recent security breach by hackers has now been exposed as one of the biggest HIPAA security breaches in history.
New published reports indicate that hackers managed to infilitrate a server belonging to a Texas healthcare system. In the process, health information of more than 400,000 people was compromised.
The five-hospital St. Joseph Health System in Bryan, Texas, on Tuesday reported it had experienced a three-day long data security attack back in December, when certain parties gained unauthorized access to a server containing patient and employee Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and medical information.
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Posted in Healthcare IT, Security
In 2009, the HITECH Act was put into place to protect the privacy and security of patient information that is stored on portable electronic tools and devices. Last week in Concord, Massachusetts, Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, P.C. was the first to pay a settlement for a HITECH Act violations. They agreed to the amount of $150,000 that will be paid to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights.
The settlement is in response to a thumb drive that contained protected health information for 2,000 patients. The thumb drive was stolen out of one of the Dermatology employee’s cars.
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Posted in Patient privacy, Regulation, Security
The desire to categorize and sort is a basic feature of our human brains. Some of us are better at it than others. Ken Kleinberg of The Advisory Board Company is especially adept at clear categorization of mobile health/mobility categories.
In Ken’s presentation at the mHealth Summit event in Washington D.C. last week, he presented a simple summary categorization of all things mobility in the healthcare world. I appreciated the structure and how it lends itself to discussing where mobility initiatives fit, and how a day in the life of a healthcare professional or a patient – can be touched by mobile services.
Ken says that what one may be doing with mobile healthcare can fit into one of five categories:
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Posted in mHealth, Patient privacy, Security
Proving once again that mHealth apps are not immune to security threats, iPharmacy is taking substantial heat today for purportedly leaking medical information online.
According to PCMag, which cites a report from Appthority, this app “has some serious problems.”
“For an app that has earned a top developer award from Google Play, [we] found it to be one of the top offenders when it comes to risky privacy behaviors for apps in the health or medical category,” explains Appthority Chief Architect and Co-Founder Kevin Watkins.
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Posted in mHealth, mHealth news, Security, Smartphones
CDW Health recently shared an alarming infographic that should be a cautionary tale to those in the healthcare industry who aren’t taking adequate security measures with regard to electronic health records.
Unsecured records are, indeed, very costly, as the shared visual below conveys.
From data breaches, HIPAA breaches, and even general record breaches, all the costs add up to an outcome that can and should be avoided at all costs.
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Posted in Infographics, Security, Technology
Big data has the potential to revolutionize healthcare every bit as profoundly as mobile. And for that reason, there is an industry-wide examination of big data taking place at this very moment.
Vast amounts of data from genomic sequencing and electronic health records have the potential to radically improve the health of individual patients.
But first, institutions must learn how to manage the data, and adopt uniform standards in usability that will enable them to share vital information.
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Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare IT, Organizations, Patient privacy, Security
