patient safety
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A Ransomware Epidemic And An Overdue National Health IT Safety Center
A rapid increase in computerization of health care organizations (HCOs) around the world has raised their profile as lucrative targets for cyber-criminals. Recently there has been a spate of high-profile ransomware attacks involving hospitals’ electronic health record (EHR) data.Briefly, ransomware attacks commonly start when a user is conned into clicking an internet link or opening a malicious email attachment. Malware, or software that is intended to damage or disable the computer, is then downloaded and rapidly encrypts data on that computer and attempts to reach out to other computers on the same network to encrypt data on those computers as well; consequently, all encrypted data is inaccessible...
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13 Things That Are About To Change At VA
The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act passed the House on July 30 with a vote of 420 to 5. The Senate followed suit, 91 to 3, on July 31, and the president's signature is all but assured...
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16% of Healthcare Stakeholders Plan to Use Blockchain by 2017
Blockchain may have entered the healthcare lexicon in 2016 as a somewhat fuzzy concept, but the innovative method of securing and validating data transactions is poised to take the industry by storm over the next twelve months, according to an international survey conducted by IBM. Sixteen percent of the 200 healthcare executives participating in the poll have concrete plans to implement a commercial blockchain solution within their organizations in 2017, while an additional 56 percent are likely to follow by the end of the decade...
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18 Hospitals That Closed In 2013
Throughout 2013, 18 acute-care hospitals closed their doors, and there are many others — such as Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Vidant Pungo Hospital in Belhaven, N.C., Lake Shore Health Care Center in Irving, N.Y., and Williamson (W.Va.) Memorial Hospital, to name a few — that could follow suit this year. Read More »
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3 Steps To Improving Medical Data Error Reporting
As is often the case in life, we hope to learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them. The same could be said for our healthcare system. Read More »
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4 Lesser Known Problems With EHRs
Although the healthcare industry continues to transition from paper to electronic health records, many patients and even some providers remain unaware of their imperfections, according to a recent post in the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. The article, which outlines "10 things your medical records won't say" flags several problems endemic to EHRs that have received a lot of media attention, such as high costs and physicians' dissatisfaction with the systems.
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5 Nagging Questions About Meaningful Use Stage 2
New technology, we generally assume, is supposed to make us more comfortable by instituting convenience into our lives. Yet new technology that comes with deadlines attached can have exactly the opposite effect. Read More »
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8 Out of 10 Mobile Health Apps Open to HIPAA Violations, Hacking, Data Theft
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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8 Out of 10 Mobile Health Apps Open to HIPAA Violations, Hacking, Data Theft
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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Accountable Care: IT Gets Us Only Halfway There
It's hard to imagine a successful accountable care organization (ACO) that doesn't rely heavily on IT...But the very foundation upon which ACOs are built could be shaky, making software tools only so effective. Let me explain. Read More »
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Affinity Nurses Seek Delay On Electronic Records
Affinity Medical Center registered nurses are asking hospital officials to delay a new electronic health record system set to begin this weekend. Read More »
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Affinity RNs Call For Halt To Flawed Electronic Medical Records System Scheduled To Go Live Friday
Affinity Medical Center RNs in Massillon, Ohio are calling on hospital officials to delay the planned June 21 implementation of the Cerner electronic medical records (EMR) system, until the hospital bargains with the nurses and proceeds in a safe manner. The direct-care RNs, represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) in Ohio, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), say that nurses, the primary users of the complex system, have had insufficient training, which will put patients at risk. Read More »
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After A 'Bridge' Year For Meaningful Use, 2014 Could Be Painful For Providers
The electronic health record world covered a lot of ground in 2013, some of it positive, some of it not. Here's our annual look at the top stories that dominated the headlines in FierceEMR in 2013--and a few that we might expect to see in 2014. Read More »
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AHRQ Eyes Quality Improvement Project
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has requested that the Office of Management and Budget approve funding for a new information collecting project aimed at bolstering efficiency and value in hospitals and medical offices. Read More »
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AirStrip, Humetrix and others advise Congress on FDA, FTC, HIPAA
At a congressional hearing on mobile medical apps today, experts from different sectors of the industry weighed in on the ways they think federal regulation needs to change to create a robust digital health industry while still protecting the safety and wellbeing of patients. The conversation spanned various regulatory bodies and federal programs including HIPAA, the FDA, the FTC, and Medicare. “The regulatory framework for most of these apps is complicated and in some cases troubling,” Nicolas Terry, a law professor at Indiana University said in his prepared testimony. “Here, the oversimplified binary of regulation versus innovation is a poor frame...
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