Shaunacy Ferro reports that Australia is monitoring firefighter’s biodata on the job: A new data-delivering pill could help firefighters monitor their reactions to heat stress, a new trial in Australia shows. Heat stress can lead to various problems for firefighters working in hot environments, including unconsciousness and cardiac arrest, and the standard method of measuring…
Author: Dissent
Docs 'n guns
I’ve previously noted a Florida law that prohibited doctors from inquiring whether there was a gun in a patient’s home. In my opinion, the Firearm Owners ‘ Privacy Act was, and is, a terrible law, and interferes with health care professionals’ attempts to routinely screen for environmental factors that may, at some point, become a safety risk…
Ca: Info on 25,000 patients lost in Montfort Hospital security lapse
Chris Cobb reports: Montfort Hospital officials were scrambling on Friday to reassure thousands of patients that an unsecured USB data key lost by a hospital employee did not contain intimate details of their health issues. Information on the USB key, downloaded from a Montfort computer in contravention of hospital rules, contained information on more than…
Web Hunt for DNA Sequences Leaves Privacy Compromised
Gina Kolata reports: The genetic data posted online seemed perfectly anonymous — strings of billions of DNA letters from more than 1,000 people. But all it took was some clever sleuthing on the Web for a genetics researcher to identify five people he randomly selected from the study group. Not only that, he found their entire families,…
At long last, HHS unveils Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules
From their press release: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved forward today to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The final omnibus rule greatly enhances a patient’s privacy protections, provides individuals new rights to their health…
St. Mark's Medical Center notifies patients after finding malware on system
St. Mark’s Medical Center in LaGrange, Texas notified 2,988 patients of a breach. From their notice of December 31, 2012: On November 15, 2012, we learned that on May 21, 2012, one of our employee’s computers had become infected with malware that appears to have been designed to look for personal information stored on the computer….