A recent update to HHS’s public breach tool revealed an incident involving Salina Health Education Foundation (d/b/a Salina Family Healthcare Center) in Kansas. The April 8th incident affected 9,640 patients and was coded as “Unauthorized Access/Disclosure E-mail.” A statement dated June 2 explains: Salina Family Healthcare Center (SFHC) notified more than 500 patients of an unintentional transmission of unsecured…
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Alabama Department of Public Health notifies individuals whose personal info possibly stolen
WSFA reports: The Alabama Department of Public Health says it is in the process of notifying individuals whose personal information may have been stolen and advising possible victims of alleged fraud to report incidences of identity theft. ADPH released a statement saying it was informed on June 5, 2014 that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for…
Google: 100,000 lives a year lost through fear of data-mining
Not everyone agrees that there’s too much data-mining of health information. Alex Herm reports: Fear of data-mining of healthcare could be costing as many as 100,000 lives a year, according to Google’s Larry Page. Speaking out in response to fears over his company’s vast haul of personal information, Page made the case that not only…
Hospitals Soon See Donuts-to-Cigarette Charges for Health
So no sooner do I post Dr. Deborah Peel’s talk about commercial entities data-mining and selling our information, then Joe Cadillic sends me a link to an article by Shannon Pettypiece and Jordan Robertson of Bloomberg: You may soon get a call from your doctor if you’ve let your gym membership lapse, made a habit of…
Designing Technology to Restore Privacy
Dr. Deborah Peel, the founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights, recently gave a TED talk, “Designing Technology to Restore Privacy.” You can watch it here: Her talk may feel somewhat overwhelming or even depressing, as the sale and non-consensual use of our health information is rampant – and legal. So what can we do?…
WellSpan Health notifies employees of possible data, privacy breach
Mollie Durkin reports: WellSpan Health has notified its employees about a situation that could expose the health system to a risk of federal health information privacy violations. In a Friday email, employees were told they could have unknowingly downloaded private patient information to their non-work devices, said WellSpan spokesman Barry Sparks. The email said if…