A computer stolen from the University of Toledo contained personal information for about 24,000 students and 450 faculty during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years, the university announced Monday. […] The computer was password protected and many of the files were specifically encrypted or individually password protected, he said. The personal data was saved on…
Pointer: Two Experiences with Failed EHR Implementations
Speaking of EMR/EHR implementation problems, check out this blog entry from the Welcome to EMR and HIPAA blog
IL: Drug database raises privacy concerns
Sharon Woods Harris reports: Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover said an amendment to the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program would make investigations into questionable deaths much easier, but a national privacy advocacy group has some concerns. House Bill 3695 would amend the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program — a database of prescriptions that doctors and pharmacists use…
Get Ready for EHR Failures, But Don’t Blame the Software
Austin Merritt of Software Advice is a proponent of EHR and has written a column that identifies what he sees as major reasons why EHR adoption may fail: Our concern is that the subsidies won’t change healthcare providers’ late adopter mindsets about information technology. Providers may jump at “free software†and try to avoid penalties…
Mayo puts HealthVault on hold, PHR questions linger
Joseph Conn reports: The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., one of the nation’s premier and best-known healthcare organizations, has yet to deploy the HealthVault personal health record from Microsoft Corp., despite a big-splash publicity notice linking of the two organizations more than a year ago, according to Mayo spokesman Karl Oestreich. The Mayo Clinic, thus, is…
Stimulus bill puts burden on physicians to tell patients of data breach
Karen Caffarini reports: Sending a letter to patients to notify them of a data breach in your office is more than just a nice thing to do — it’s becoming something you must do. The recently passed stimulus legislation — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — includes language that requires any physician…