Security

ONC's electronic health record certification process has some serious shortcomings -- chief among them security practices that are wholly insufficient to adequately protect patient health information, according to a new report from the Office of Inspector General.

In many ways, mobile device security is an oxymoron in its current state. In fact, if you're using an Internet of Things-type device, chances are it has an average of 25 hidden vulnerabilities, according to new research, making it a ripe target for hackers.

A Rhode Island hospital, who nearly two years ago notified 14,000 patients of a HIPAA breach involving their data, agreed Wednesday to hand over $150,000 to settle allegations that it failed to safeguard patient information.

The joys of unintended consequences never end. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required hospitals to get paid based on how much they improved their patients' health rather than on how many tests and procedures were completed. The intent was to improve patient care.

Johns Hopkins Health System will hand over $190 million to settle a class action privacy lawsuit involving one of its former gynecologists who secretly recorded video and captured photos of patient examinations.

MemorialCare Health System, a top 100 integrated delivery network, implemented awareness computing technology at the Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif. The goal is to provide roaming clinicians instant access to patient records throughout the hospital, while also ensuring top security.

Massachusetts healthcare providers are adopting health information technology and health data exchange and drawing consumer support for going digital, according to a new study from Massachusetts eHealth Institute.

Sure, HIPAA adds a layer of privacy protection for certain health data -- if organizations actually comply with it -- but there remains myriad avenues of mining health data and selling to the highest bidder that do not fall under the purview of HIPAA's privacy and security rules. And they may surprise you.

Few healthcare IT policies these days are as delicate, sensitive and potentially emotionally explosive as efforts to restrict or regulate employee social media activity. And yet hospital hierarchies are routinely stepping on these political minefields as providers try to protect their reputations.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT continues to reshape itself as it adjusts to funding limits. To that end, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, has outlined a new working group structure for ONC's Health IT Policy Committee.