Rebecca Harrington reports: The Minnesota Department of Health would regain broad authority to test and store blood samples from newborn babies under legislation that has pitted medical privacy activists against advocates of public health and medical research. The bill, which has passed key committees in the House and Senate, would reverse the direction of recent…
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UK funders get tough on privacy breaches
Ewen Callaway writes: Leading UK organizations that fund research have threatened to revoke the funding of scientists who determine the identities of participants in medical and genomic studies who had expressed a wish to remain anonymous. The warning was issued on 24 March by the Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council…
WA: Gig Harbor psychologist suspended over laptop theft must be evaluated before practicing again
Stacia Glenn reports: A Gig Harbor psychologist who failed to immediately fess up that a prostitute stole his laptop with medical information about 652 state Department of Social and Health Services clients must undergo a mental health evaluation if he wants to practice again. Sunil Kakar was suspended in October on charges ranging from unprofessional…
Henry Schein receives recognition for corporate ethics
A press release yesterday announced that Henry Schein has been named a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute. Considering that I’ve raised questions about their marketing of Dentrix G5 as providing “encryption” and the fact that they wouldn’t send out individual letters to customers informing them that what providers purchased as incorporating…
No violation of HIPAA in Monroeville, feds say
Kyle Lawson reports on a case involving Monroeville, Pennsylvania that I’ve followed on this blog over the past few years. As I had noted, although I thought there was a privacy violation, it wasn’t clear to me whether the services involved were HIPAA-covered entities. It turns out they weren’t. Lawson reports: [HHS’s] investigation found that…
Hospital's missing data drive contains info on child patients
Scott Powers reports: A computer flash drive containing limited patient information on 586 children treated at Orlando Health’s Arnold Palmer Medical Center has been misplaced and is being treated as a data security breach. The information includes last names, assigned medical record numbers, dates of birth, gestational ages, birth weights, dates of hospitalizations, and in some…