Steve Dow reports: It could be a grief-saving app of the future, the day we carry our gene sequence in our phones. When two people want to have children, they’ll bump genomes and a database might reply: ”Think again, you both have faulty disease-causing copies of the same gene.” That’s the hope of the Australian…
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Data loss and medical privacy: In the aftermath of a tornado
Tragically, the tornado that recently hit Joplin, Missouri took lives as well as destroying most of the city. As the state and the medical community scrambled to respond to the tragedy and to provide care, the country has watched, prayed, and tried to support and help those who have been affected. But in the aftermath…
HHS issues new HIPAA accounting of disclosures rule
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a proposed rule implementing changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s standard for accounting of disclosures of protected health information. This proposed rule addresses the changes required by the HITECH Act, which requires HIPAA covered entities and business associates to account for disclosures of protected health…
Prison Medical Records: A Source of Medical Discoveries? Or a Privacy Issue?
Michael Ono reports: It sounds like something out of science fiction — doctors using a cache of prisoner health records to produce medical breakthroughs for the betterment of society. But it’s not. Medical researchers across the country are eager to sift through electronic health data in hope of finding future health benefits. And in an…
Texas governor signs law requiring sonogram before abortion
Zach Zagger writes: Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law Thursday a bill [HB 15 text; materials] that requires women seeking an abortion to first get a sonogram. The law requires doctors to conduct a vaginal ultrasound and display the images at least 24 hours prior to an abortion, and would strip them of their medical licenses should they…
UK: NHS e-records: Can DoH turn off the life support?
Nick Heath writes: Spending almost £3bn on a project that pleases no one is an act of incompetence. But burning through another £4bn by persisting with that same doomed endeavour amounts to lunacy. There appear to be no winners in the Department of Health’s project to create electronic patient records. Not the GP surgeries and…