Network Infrastructure
Last month, the Identity Theft Resource Center produced a survey showing that medical-related identity theft accounted for 43 percent of all identity thefts reported in the United States in 2013. According to HHS, the theft of a computer or other electronic device is involved in more than half of medical-related security breaches.
To all the developers building applications in the cloud that need to comply with HIPAA privacy and security rules: You've just gained a big supporter. Internet behemoth Google recently announced its cloud platform will now be HIPAA-friendly and will support business associate agreements going forward.
Some 42 percent of U.S. hospitals have adopted telehealth platforms and are using the technology to treat patients, with several factors affecting market changes, according to new report findings.
If you're shirking your security systems' obligations all to save a few pennies, better think again. Chances are, it will end up costing much more down the road -- a whopping $1.6 billion more.
The Office of the National Coordinator had a place at the table for the 15th annual IHE North American Connectathon, filled by Doug Fridsma, MD, chief science officer and director of the ONC's Office of Science and Technology and four members of his team.
Last October and November, as HealthCare.gov struggled to accommodate visitors and offer its promised user experience, HHS staff and contractors were, among other fixes, "adding server capacity" -- suggesting that the U.S. CTO's goals of technological innovation remain to be seen in health programs.
An IT network failure at a Florida health system put the organization's $80 million Epic electronic medical record system down for the count this past week. The outage, officials reported, lasted nearly two days.
Maine may become the first state in the country to offer residents access to their personal health records via a health information exchange. The Maine HealthInfoNet plan is part of a federally-funded innovation project experimenting with a range of medical home, analytics and engagement strategies.
The two long-time staffers, both former members of the military, replace two other long-time agency leaders and are overseeing the most significant health coverage and regulatory expansions in the agency's history.
As far as Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, is concerned, the $34 billion health IT and electronic medical record incentive program was a grave misstep for the healthcare industry -- but not necessarily for the reasons one might think.