Kevin Barnes writes in the Croydon Guardian: A sensitive document detailing the treatments of premature babies at Mayday Hospital was discovered at a supermarket in Sutton. An investigation was ordered after a shopper stumbled on the highly confidential patient records while browsing a DVD rack at Morrisons. John Dunne, 61, discovered the names, dates of…
Category: Health Data
Hospital donor files compromised
Markian Hawryluk and Betsy Q. Cliff report in The Bulletin: A computer virus may have exposed to outside eyes the names, credit card numbers, dates of birth and home addresses of more than 11,500 individuals who donated to Cascade Healthcare Community, the parent company of St. Charles in Bend and Redmond. The virus penetrated the…
Stolen medical records can be costly, deadly
Tom Kisken writes in the Ventura County Star: When identity theft happens in hospitals or medical offices, money may be the least of the victim’s worries. […] Often, the crimes involve an employee who has access to records and sells them, [Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum] said. The buyers start cautiously. They send…
DNA database creates genetic surveillance
An Op-Ed on Gazette.net by Gerald G. Stansbury of the Maryland State NAACP; June White Dillard of the Prince George’s Branch NAACP; and Cynthia Boersma of the ACLU of Maryland addresses proposed legislation in Maryland: Warrantless seizure of DNA from individuals who are arrested but not convicted of crimes is being considered in the Maryland…
UK: 300,000 prescriptions lost by NHS
The BBC reports: Thousands of prescription forms, carrying the names and addresses of patients, go missing every year as they are transported around the NHS. The government has admitted that almost 300,000 have been lost or stolen in England since 1997. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said handling of personal information was “serially incompetent”. But…
New image technique could allow scanners to read minds
James Randerson writes in the Guardian: Scientists have developed a mind-reading technique that allows them to accurately predict images being viewed by people, by using scanners to study brain activity. The breakthrough by American scientists took MRI scanning equipment normally used in surgical procedures to observe patterns of brain activity when a subject examined a…