A collection agency announced a security breach Friday that potentially compromises the personal information of 700,000 people. The Central Collection Bureau said the breach happened on March 21, 2008. The company said thieves broke into its offices and stole eight computers, as well as one of its servers. The server, which was password protected and…
Author: Dissent
Court blocks broad subpoena of patient records
Amy Lynn Sorrel of American Medical News reports: Louisiana physicians who were getting roped into the state’s lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company won a recent victory in their effort to defend their patients’ privacy. But doctors’ involvement in the case may not be over just yet. The Louisiana attorney general is suing Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc.,…
Ca: Patient file fallout
Joan Walters writes more in the Hamilton Spectator about an incident reported here yesterday: Three investigations have been launched into patient confidentiality after sensitive health files from a Hamilton hospital were found in an Etobicoke dumpster. St. Joseph’s Healthcare was trying yesterday to reach all seven families affected after records of their children’s stay in…
Feds lay groundwork for PHR adoption
Diana Manos of Health IT News writes: Members of a federal healthcare IT advisory panel workgroup considered recommendations Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how best to push personal health records. CDC is one of the few federal agencies making headway in using the Internet in all its various forms to…
Ending Secrecy: Physician Makes Case for Full Disclosure of Health Records
Ted Eytan, M.D., M.P.H., writes about the benefits of providing full disclosure of health records to the patient: My first exposure to the “for doctors’ eyes only” concept of the medical record occurred in high school, when I was working in a community hospital, and a patient waiting for a diagnostic exam began thumbing through…
MN: Genetic testing
Michael Marchio writes on the Minnesota Public Radio site: The Senate had a pretty light day today, approving a few bills and then recessing to take up the bovine tuberculosis bill, but the House has a whopper of a debate on genetic testing of newborn babies. SF3138, sponsored by Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) […] Rep….