Speaking of the risk of mobile devices… Lahey Clinic reports that on July 1, a physician lost a Blackberry (or it was stolen) at an airport in France. On it were patients’ names, dates of birth, Lahey medical record numbers, diagnosis, and procedure names/test results. The clinic did a remote wipe of all of the…
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New Texas privacy law adds more hassle, expense
John K. Wisniewski, the CEO/executive director of the Bexar County Medical Society, is not happy with Texas’s new law (HB 300) that goes into effect this month. The law goes beyond what HIPAA requires: The changes begin with a broadened definition of “covered entities,” to include almost anyone who handles protected health information. This may…
When you only look at part of the elephant: Data breach winners and losers by state
Erin McCann has an article on data breaches in the healthcare sector: So who are the biggest offenders by state? Generally, states with the highest population have the highest number of data breaches. For instance, California and Texas top the list, banking the highest number of data breaches in the nation. However, when population is…
HIV researcher warns against protracted data freeze
Tara Carman reports that researchers are concerned over a halt to sharing data in the wake of reports of inappropriate access: A freeze on access to medical data from the B.C. government has the potential to seriously undermine the health care system if it goes on too long, a prominent Vancouver medical researcher said Friday….
Ca: Internal Audit at University of Victoria Over Potential Privacy Breach (updated)
cmclean writes: The University of Victoria has launched in an internal audit into allegations of conflict interest and breach of privacy involving the Health Ministry. The government contracts with UVIC to conduct research on prescription drugs and the Health Ministry shares patient information with the university. The province believes that information may have been shared…
Beware of the threat within
Darren Pauli has a report on insider breaches in Australia. One of them involves a situation we’ve seen here, too: insiders stealing patient databases to set up their own practice: Another ongoing case has seen a Sydney medical clinic chain defrauded of up to $2 million after a small group of experienced practitioners allegedly stole…