Julie Appleby reports in USA TODAY: Doctors’ offices, clinics and hospitals are a fruitful hunting ground for identity thieves, who are using increasingly sophisticated methods to steal patient information, lawyers and privacy experts say. Recent disclosures that hospital workers snooped into the medical files of Maria Shriver, Britney Spears and George Clooney highlight the vulnerability…
Author: Dissent
UK: Patients "have no faith in NHS records database"
A series of personal information losses have meant patients have no faith in plans to put their details on a new national NHS database, ministers have been warned. Conservative MP Christopher Fraser said the collapse in confidence came after 300,000 prescription forms were lost, junior doctor job applications were found on the internet and a…
Editorial: Log into plan for online medical data
By the fall of 2009, if all goes as planned, Oregon’s 400,000 Medicaid recipients could be receiving a higher quality of health care through one high-tech change, according to the Department of Human Services. The agency is taking the lead on an effort to put the patients’ records online. The records would be accessible to…
Kaiser completes outpatient EHR rollout
Bernie Monegain reports in Healthcare IT News: Kaiser Permanente has completed the rollout of its outpatient electronic health record system in nine states and the District of Columbia. Kaiser’s 13,000 physicians in 421 offices now have electronic access to their patients’ medical records. Kaiser officials bill the system, called Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, as the world’s…
Hk: HA sets up Task Force on Patient Data Security and Privacy (updated)
From the press release: The Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority ( HA ), Mr Shane Solomon, today ( May 5 ) announced the appointment of a Task Force on Patient Data Security and Privacy with the objectives of enhancing system security and patient data protection, following cases of loss of electronic devices containing patient…
Anti-Discrimination Bill Inadvertently Legalizes Sharing of Genetic Information Without Patient Consent
The Institute for Health Freedom has published a new article on its site: “While authors of the recently passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (H.R. 493) had good intentions, the bill inadvertently legalizes the sharing of genetic information without patient consent,†says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom (IHF). “It…