The BBC reports that NHS Grampian has confirmed that a laptop containing names and addresses, dates of birth, and coded clinical information of 1,392 patients has been stolen from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The laptop was stolen from a locked office cupboard sometime between the evening of April 15 and the next morning. According to a…
Category: Health Data
HHS offers health IT privacy guidelines
Brian Robinson reports in Government Health IT: The Health and Human Services Department has begun overhauling the privacy and security rules that govern personal health information, which is considered vital to attempts by Congress and the Obama administration to broaden the adoption of electronic health records. HHS published guidance on April 17 that outlines the…
Proposed breach notification rule would affect more health vendors
Bob Brewin reports: Rules proposed by the Federal Trade Commission on April 16 on disclosure of breaches of personal health information would greatly expand the number of companies that would be subject to notifying individuals if their personal health data was exposed because records were lost or stolen, or because a hacker broke into a…
HHS Releases Guidance for Securing Health Information and Preventing Harm From Breaches
nbsp; Barbara Kram reports: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published guidance regarding technologies and methodologies to secure health information and prevent harm by rendering health information unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act required publication of the guidance by April 18. This builds on…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Atin Singh, charged with stealing customer data from Roti Bistro where he worked, pleaded no contest to five felonies. More. Joseph A. Radican was sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading guilty in the theft of three computers from the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2008 (previous coverage here). The…
(Follow-up) UK: Human error blamed for data loss
A health trust did not take adequate steps to prevent the loss of a memory stick with data on 6,360 prisoners and ex-prisoners, a report has said. The USB stick was being used to back up clinical databases at HMP Preston when it was lost on 30 December. A report found that human error was…