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…
Category: Health Data
UK: Health board admits losing patients’ data
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…
Security Breach: More Laws Needed. Let's Add Health Care
Over on InformationWeek, George Hulme is singing our tune: […] But let’s just stick to health care. More than 1.5 million patient records at hospitals have been exposed by data breaches during 2006 and 2007, according to the 2008 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions. That begs the question:…
Who's reading your medical files today?
Sue A. Blevins of nstitute for Health Freedom in Washington writes in the Christian Science Monitor: How would you feel about your personal health information flowing freely over the Internet between public health officials, healthcare providers, insurance and data clearinghouse companies, and others – without your permission? If this doesn’t sound like a good idea,…
UK: NHS hit by new data losses
Kate Foster of Scotland on Sunday reports: THE loss of confidential personal data has become so widespread that patients’ groups last night launched a campaign to tighten up security in the NHS. The move comes as Scotland on Sunday reveals hundreds of cases of breaches concerning patients’ notes. Two lost USB computer memory sticks containing…
Data miners track docs' habits
Matthew Perrone of the Associated Press reports: When most patients go to the pharmacy to fill a new prescription, they don’t think twice about turning over the note from their doctor. After all, how much could the scrawled handwriting on that tiny slip be worth? Not much to the average consumer — but to big…