Over on ZDnet HealthCare, Dana Blankenhorn disagrees with the position of PatientPrivacyRights.org. I, too, disagree with PPR on some issues, but I also disagree with Dana’s proposed “solution” because it does not even begin to address the concerns I have. For the record, I am a mental health professional. Deborah Peel of PPR is a…
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EDPS opinion on patients' rights: specific data protection dimension of cross-border healthcare needs to be addressed in more concrete terms
On 2 December 2008, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an opinion on a proposal for a Directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. The proposal aims at establishing a Community framework for the provision of cross-border healthcare within the European Union (EU) for those occasions where the care patients…
A third of healthcare professionals leave data security to chance
A transatlantic survey of more than a thousand healthcare professionals has shown that over a third are unwittingly putting personal information at risk by storing patient records, medical images, contact details, corporate data and other sensitive information on mobile devices such as laptops, BlackBerrys and USB sticks – and not adequately securing them. The “mobile…
The Security and Privacy of Healthcare Data
George Hulme writes: Despite the aim of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to bolster the security and privacy of patient information, a majority of health-care providers believe more should — and can — be done. And a newly formed consortium of industry leaders plans to do something about it. A group of nine…
UnitedHealthcare data breach leads to ID theft at UC Irvine
Robert McMillan reports in ComputerWorld: A data breach at United Healthcare Services Inc. has led to a rash of identity-theft crimes at the University of California, Irvine. To date, 155 graduate and medical students at the school have been hit by the scam, in which criminals file false tax returns in the victim’s name and…
Vendor identifies top five healthcare data security risks
Molly Merrill writes in Healthcare IT News that Absolute Software Corporation, a security software solutions vendor, has identified the top five data security risks most often faced by healthcare facilities. The five risks are: 1. Failure to protect sensitive data beyond encryption. 2. Inability to accurately manage mobile computer assets. 3. Sensitive information on public…