A few days ago, I noted a privacy breach that left the victim considering moving out of the area. Here’s yet another insider privacy breach involving a hospital where the affected patient is considering moving. Michelle Duff reports: Hutt Hospital receptionists nosed through the medical notes of a surrogate mother 20 times but were allowed…
Update: Dept. of Energy hack affected 7.5x as many individuals as originally reported
Kudos to Mathew J. Schwartz of InformationWeek for following up on the July Dept. of Energy hack. In August, Schwartz reported that the breach involved an outdated version of ColdFusion. In September, he reported that the number affected was not 14,000 – as originally estimated by DOE – but about 53,000. Today, Schwartz calls our…
MO: Employee Abuses Access to Boone Hospital Patient Information
Nick Thompson reports: KOMU 8 News obtained a letter from a Boone Hospital patient Monday in which the privacy director admitted an employee affiliated with the hospital abused their access to a network containing patient information. Privacy director Kathleen Pitzer wrote several patients last week, saying she became aware of an information breach on Sept….
Is your doctor spying on your tweets? Social media raises medical privacy questions
Art Caplan poses an interesting ethical question: A friend recently brought to my attention a disturbing question from a psychiatrist working with a transplant team: Should she be checking the sobriety claims of liver transplant candidates by looking on their Twitter and other social media sites? That question merits discussion because it’s clear both doctors…
Medical Start-up Invited Millions Of Patients To Write Reviews They May Not Realize Are Public. Some Are Explicit. (update2)
Update: Practice Fusion responded to the Forbes story. See the Comments section below for a link to their statement. Kashmir Hill writes: Medical records start-up Practice Fusion has attracted a whopping $134 million in venture capital thanks to its appealing business model: it offers 100,000 (and counting) medical types free, web-based patient management services. The doctors get…
Seton Healthcare Family notifies 5,500 patients of breach involving stolen laptop (CORRECTED)
It’s been a while since I’ve reported on a stolen laptop breach involving Seton Healthcare Family in Texas, but it appears they’ve had another one. Here is the notice posted on their web site today: Seton Healthcare Family is committed to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of our patients’ information. Regrettably, this notice concerns an…