Frank Konkel reports: The leading cause of data breaches at the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be paper-based records, according to VA Acting Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology Stephen Warren. Warren briefed reporters Aug. 8 on the data breach reports his agency submitted to Congress for April, May and June, and stated that…
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Two former Sentara workers charged with identity theft
Scott Daugherty reports that two former Sentara Healthcare nurse’s aides have been indicted on charges of stealing the identities of at least a dozen patients as part of a tax refund fraud scheme. Several of the victims were patients at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and all were reportedly patients of Sentara medical facilities in…
NIH in Pact to Protect Privacy of Family, Maintain Research
Ron Winslow reports a settlement in the long-running dispute concerning the use of cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent and then used by researchers for over 60 years: The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday said it reached an unprecedented agreement to protect the privacy of the family of a woman whose…
The curious case of Alex Rodriguez and his stolen medical records
Update of December 12: See the update/follow-up here. Several months ago, I was contacted by a reader who asked me about the Alex Rodriguez case and whether there was a HIPAA breach. I responded, via e-mail, that I didn’t know as the clinic was no longer in operation and I didn’t have any information on…
UK: Landlord's shock as mental health records are found in attic
Concerns over patient confidentiality have been raised by a Hakin landlord who found stacks of medical records stashed away in his attic. Peter Eaton said he was shocked to find five bin bags-full of mental health records hidden between the joists and under the fibreglass of his attic when he was renovating his property in…
Privacy breach prompts retraction of three papers from the trauma literature
A group of international psychology researchers is retracting three papers in the wake of revelations that they failed to adequately safeguard the identities of the patients who participated in the studies. So far, only one article has been formally retracted. That article, “Combining biofeedback and Narrative Exposure Therapy for persistent pain and PTSD in refugees:…