Category: Health Data

Jason Felch of the Los Angeles Times reports: The National Institutes of Health quietly blocked public access to databases of patient DNA profiles after learning of a study that found the genetic information may not be as anonymous as previously believed, the Los Angeles Times has learned. NIH officials took the unusual step on Monday…

Patrick McGreevy reports in the Los Angeles Times:

Gary Klien reports in the Marin Independent Journal: A Martinez woman who used another person’s identity to get a $20,000 breast lift and tummy tuck in Greenbrae was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in the Marin County Jail. She nearly got away with it, but a get-well bouquet and a navel itch were her undoing….

Neil Macfarlane reports in The Northern Echo: PATIENTS’ representatives have spoken of their outrage after scores of confidential files were lost by North-East NHS trusts. The papers include private data such as medical history notes, prescription charts and laboratory results. Among the missing data is a bundle of 19 files that a consultant left in…

Wirral Primary Care Trust has delayed plans to introduce a telephone support service provided by a US contractor, after a local outcry at plans to transfer extracts from patient records to a private company. The proposed new health coaching service, called ‘Wirral Keep Well’, provided by Health Dialog, a US subsidiary of Bupa that provides…

Steward Paterson of The Herald reports: New controls on computerised data storage have been introduced at a Scottish health authority after equipment containing patients’ sensitive details were lost. Two computer memory sticks were reported as lost or stolen earlier this year by staff at NHS Dumfries and Galloway. New guidelines are now being implemented concerning…