Anthony McCartney of Associated Press reports: Coroner’s officials are looking into how the celebrity Web site TMZ obtained details on prescription drugs contained in an investigator’s report on the death of Brittany Murphy. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Tuesday he didn’t know how TMZ obtained the confidential report, and that he was concerned other…
Category: Health Data
Texas to destroy baby blood taken without consent
Jay Root of the Associated Press reports: Texas health authorities will destroy as many as four million blood samples taken from babies without parental consent and stored indefinitely for scientific research. The Texas Department of State Health Services announced Tuesday it would destroy the samples after settling a federal lawsuit filed by the Texas Civil…
Ca: Health records of thousands lost in Durham
Carola Vyhnak reports: Personal health information for 83,524 people has gone astray with the loss of a USB key in Durham Region. The device contained data collected from everyone who attended H1N1 or seasonal flu vaccination clinics in the region between Oct. 23 and Dec. 15. It was lost on regional headquarters property at Rossland…
Spyware snags Akron Children’s Hospital patient and employee info
The Associated Press reports that Scott Graham of Ohio faces prison time after pleading guilty in federal court to felony charges of intercepting electronic communications by using spyware to spy on a woman’s computer activities. By spying on her, he also accidentally retrieved confidential information from the computer system at Akron Children’s Hospital, where she…
UK: Reprieve for the dentist who lost 10,000 records
Amanda Crook reports: A dentist who lost the records of 10,000 patients will be allowed to continue working. Omer Butt left computers and filing cabinets in a van parked on a road in Cheetham Hill while his practice Unsworth Smile Clinic, in Prestwich, was being refurbished. The van and the private dental records were stolen…
Attorney for doctors in WDH privacy breach disputes AG's finding
Adam D. Krauss continues to update us on this case: An attorney for two doctors impacted by the privacy breach at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital says the Office of the Attorney General would have found WDH had to notify patients if the state knew a rogue employee accessed patients’ social security numbers and sensitive insurance policy data….