The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is about to rule whether health care entities will need to notify patients if their de-identified data — patient data that has been stripped of all potential for identifying individuals, which is often used for research and development — is breached. As it stands now, de-identified…
Category: Health Data
U.S. Pays $20,000 to Settle Forced IUD Removal Case
A New Mexico woman who alleged a physician’s assistant at a health clinic expressed anti-abortion views while removing her IUD without her permission won a $20,000 settlement from the federal government, On Point has learned. Ashley Van Patten’s attorney provided On Point with the settlement agreement after the U.S. filed dismissal papers in court earlier…
Lawyer: Va. Tech gunman files taken inadvertently
The former counseling center director at Virginia Tech inadvertently took home the mental health records for the student gunman when he left his job there, the director’s attorney said Thursday. In a statement given to The Associated Press, attorney Ed McNelis said Dr. Robert Miller accidentally placed Seung-Hui Cho’s records in a box he packed…
Michael Jackson death certificate improperly accessed
Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said Wednesday that they have discovered security breaches involving the investigation into Michael Jackson’s death, including hundreds of improper views of the pop star’s death certificate and the discovery of weaknesses in two other computer systems in which more sensitive records are stored. At least half a dozen staff members…
Stolen hospital laptop contained patient info
Another news story on a stolen laptop — this one from NorthShore University HealthSystem: The laptop was connected to equipment used by staff to treat patients. Just who took the laptop from the Evanston, IL-based facility—an employee, patient, or visitor—was not known. What was known was that 250 patients had personal information stored on the…
UK: Patients' records may have been accessed by hackers
Hackers managed to infiltrate phone systems at a Bodmin hospital and St Austell doctors’ surgery and could have accessed confidential medical information about patients. Phone systems at Bodmin NHS Treatment Centre and Polkyth Surgery in St Austell were both hacked into by people trying to use the systems to make their own calls. Bodmin Treatment…