The details of 189 NHS walk-in centre patients could have been leaked as part of a data breach linked to a worker whose daughter was recently killed. NHS Bury has written to the patients to warn them their records could have been passed on to third parties. The source was said to be Dawn Makin,…
Author: Dissent
Breaches Lead to Push to Protect Medical Data
Milton Freudenheim reports: Federal health officials call it the Wall of Shame. It’s a government Web page that lists nearly 300 hospitals, doctors and insurance companies that have reported significant breaches of medical privacy in the last couple of years. Such lapses, frightening to consumers, could impede the Obama administration’s effort to shift the nation…
Case study from Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner reveals need for ethics review in research recruitment to protect privacy
Over on DataBreaches.net, I mentioned a previously unknown (to me) breach that was revealed in Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner’s 2010 Annual Report. Another incident that the report included involved a medical privacy complaint. At pp. 82-83: Case study 17: Inappropriate disclosure of medical research data In March 2010 we were contacted by a lady who…
A future where we carry our genomes on our smartphones
Steve Dow reports: It could be a grief-saving app of the future, the day we carry our gene sequence in our phones. When two people want to have children, they’ll bump genomes and a database might reply: ”Think again, you both have faulty disease-causing copies of the same gene.” That’s the hope of the Australian…
IL: Medical center employee sentenced to 8 years for ID thefts
Mary Shenk reports: Patricia Castor of Mahomet fought back tears as she told a judge how her late mother lived in fear after her wallet was stolen by an employee of an Urbana hospital where she was a patient. […] The wallet and identity thief was Karen Dooley, 30, of Champaign, a “transporter” for Provena Covenant…
TX: Important Documents Left In Dumpster
Lindsey Reiser reports: Thousands of documents containing personal information were out in the open for just anyone to grab. They’re in safe hands now, but, we still have plenty of questions. That’s because they weren’t just any documents. They were checkbooks, federal income tax forms, W2’s, 1040’s, etc. – more than what you would need…