News

A new report shows 84  percent of U.S. FDA-approved health apps tested by IT security vendor Arxan Technologies did not adequately address at least two of the Open Web Application Security Project top 10 risks. Most health apps are susceptible to code tampering and reverse-engineering, two of the most common hacking techniques, the report found. Ninety-five percent of the FDA-approved apps lack binary protection and have insufficient transport layer protection, leaving them open to hacks that could result in privacy violations, theft of personal health information, as well as device tampering and patient safety issues...

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The Knight Foundation just gave $3.2 million to organizations that are making public data more useful. These are our favorites. Read More »

The possibilities of open data have been enthralling us for 10 years. But that excitement isn’t what matters in the end. What matters is scale – which organisational structures will make this movement explode? Read More »

Just a few years ago, the industry saw most vendors touting their support for meaningful use. Today, that focus is slowly shifting to the "ready for ACO" mentality. But unlike meaningful use, said Shahid Shah, software analyst and author of the blog, The Health IT Guy, the technology required for ACOs isn't as well defined, leaving most vendors' claims "untestable." Read More »

In early April, experts at a military lab outside Washington intensified their search for evidence that a dangerous new biological threat had penetrated the nation’s borders. They didn’t have to hunt long before they found it. On May 18, a team working at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research here had its first look at a sample of the bacterium Escherichia coli, taken from a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania. She had a urinary tract infection with a disconcerting knack for surviving the assaults of antibiotic medications. Her sample was one of six from across the country delivered to the lab of microbiologist Patrick McGann...

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Four decades ago, in 1977, a conspiracy began bubbling up from the basements of the vast network of hospitals belonging to the Veterans Administration. Across the country, software geeks and doctors were puzzling out how they could make medical care better with these new devices called personal computers. Working sometimes at night or in their spare time, they started to cobble together a system that helped doctors organize their prescriptions, their CAT scans and patient notes, and to share their experiences electronically to help improve care for veterans...

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The recent headline on the Drudge Report screamed, MORE AMERICANS NOW COMMIT SUICIDE THAN DIE IN CAR CRASHES. In a Wall Street Journal opinion article last week, we read about the life of Peter Wielunski, a veteran who, while receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), took his own life. Another life cut short quite possibly by invisible wounds of war. Read More »