Health care has a problem. Well, of course, it has many problems, but one of them is that the various parties involved in the health care system can't agree on who we are. Twenty years ago HIPAA called for creation of unique patient identifiers to accomplish this task, but within two years Congress put this on hold until further notice, and we're still waiting. Everyone used to use social security numbers for this purpose, until we finally figured out the folly of that (especially since that number was never intended to be used as a national identification number). The private sector continues to clamor for federal action, while CHIME launched a National Patient ID Challenge in order to come up with solutions. News flash; we already have a unique, non-government-issued identifier: it's called a cell phone number...
protected health information (PHI)
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11 Data Security Tips For A Healthy Organization In 2013
2013 is the Year of the Snake in Chinese culture. In the healthcare world, I predict 2013 will be the Year of the Data Breach. The numbers back me up: 94 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed suffered data breaches, according to the Third Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy & Data Security, a report recently issued by Ponemon Institute. Read More »
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5 Tips For Cybersecurity Incident Response
Experts and politicians agree that security and privacy incidents are a given...And as the new cyber-risk handbook from the National Association of Corporate Directors puts it: “If a sophisticated attacker targets a company’s systems, they will almost certainly [be breached].”...
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Anatomy of a Public Health Open Source Project: HLN's Immunization Calculation Engine (ICE)
An immunization information system (IIS) aggregates immunization information for children (and some adults) living or receiving immunization services in a jurisdiction. One of the core components of an IIS is its immunization evaluation and forecasting system: the computerized algorithm that is used to determine if vaccine doses that were administered to the patient are clinically valid (evaluation) and to project what doses are due now and in the future (forecasting). These algorithms are used to support clinical decision support (CDS) at the point of care and also to help public health agencies understand and manage the immunization status of whole populations.
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Are Open Source Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Services Subject to HIPAA Regulations?
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) services such as HLN’s Immunization Calculation Engine (ICE) are modular, loosely-coupled components of larger systems accessed via web services in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Under HIPAA, services provided to Covered Entities (CE) which involve protected health information (PHI) as defined in the statute are subject to the regulation. But are CDS services such as ICE subject to this regulation?
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Azure API for FHIR moves to general availability
Today, Microsoft becomes the first cloud with a fully managed, first-party service to ingest, persist, and manage healthcare data in the native FHIR format. The Azure API for FHIR® is releasing today in generally availability to all Azure customers...With the Azure API for FHIR, a developer, researcher, device maker, or anyone working with health data-is empowered with a turnkey platform to provision a cloud-based FHIR service in just minutes and begin securely managing PHI data in Azure.
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careMESH Launches New Referral Management Module with Guaranteed Digital Delivery to Any U.S. Clinician
careMESH, the only service provider that guarantees 100% digital delivery of protected health information to any clinician nationwide, announced that it has expanded its secure communications capabilities to include a comprehensive referral management module. The built-in workflow tools and convenient administrative Task Manager make it easy for users to create a referral, attach a patient record and other relevant care information, and send it digitally to any other healthcare provider in the country. careMESH customers, including hospitals, large physician groups, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and others, use careMESH to send structured medical records, discharge summaries, secure messages, and other sensitive clinical information.
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careMESH Receives 2015 Edition ONC Health IT Certification
careMESH, the only service provider to guarantee digital delivery of patient health information to any U.S.-based clinician, announced that it has achieved ONC-Health IT 2015 Edition Health IT Module Certification for reporting on the delivery of transitions of care. This ONC-Health IT Certification gives customers the assurance that careMESH can be used for digital communications and its reports can be used in Promoting Interoperability attestation. "Achieving 2015 ONC certification was important so that our customers could not only rely on careMESH for digital communications with the outside world, but also on our reports for attestation," said careMESH President and COO, Justin Sims.
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EMR Direct Announces Availability Of Direct Project Secure Email Powered By phiMail™ In OpenEMR 4.1.2
EMR Direct, a leading developer of software for the secure exchange of Protected Health Information (PHI) over the Internet, today announced the integration of its phiMail Direct messaging platform with the latest production release of OpenEMR, enabling users of the open source electronic health record software to send and receive Direct messages through their EHR system. OpenEMR 4.1.2, released on August 17, is focused on enhanced interoperability, and the Direct messaging capabilities powered by phiMail are key to seamlessly exchanging clinical information with other healthcare providers for referrals and other transitions of care. The functionality can be activated through hosted service or customer deployment of the phiMail Direct messaging software developed by EMR Direct. Read More »
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EMR Direct Now Integrated with OpenEMR
is on a mission to modernize medical work flow and improve patient care by simplifying healthcare interoperability. The company is committed to developing technologies that protect patient privacy, improve the quality and coordination of care, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Recently, EMR Direct donated its code to OpenEMR which integrated their solution into OpenEMR version 4.1.2 They have also announced their participation in the Tennessee Health eShare program, facilitating access to Direct messaging for healthcare providers across that state. Read More »
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Florida Doctors Weigh Higher Costs For Medical Record Copies
A hearing in Florida is considering a petition to increase the costs of reproducing patient medical records scheduled to begin Friday morning at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Deerfield Beach, according to the Tampa Bay Times. (Apparently, the Blue Button has yet to come to this part of the Sunshine State.) Read More »
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Giving Patients A Role In Data Exchange
A pilot program at the University of Texas at Austin seeks to find the right processes for enabling patients to track who requests and receives their protected health information. Read More »
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Larry Ponemon On Securing Regulated Data In Healthcare: Q&A
Though mobile applications that share files through the cloud such as Box and DropBox can be appealing to consumers, the Ponemon Institute has found that these types of applications can be unsafe in a clinical environment. [...] Read More »
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Mobile Devices, Cloud Computing: What Healthcare CIOs Fear Most
Although mobile apps that share files through the cloud are gaining in popularity in the consumer market, these apps can be unsafe in a clinical setting according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute. Read More »
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New Study Shows Patients Prefer Immediate Access to Test Results and have Unmet Information Needs
A recent study of 8,000 patients that accessed their test results via an online patient portal found that more than 95% wanted to continue to immediately receive test results through their portal. That percentage stayed at 95% when focused on patients with non-normal results. These findings come amid concerns that the immediate release of test results could lead to patient distress when patients access test results before their physicians could contact them and help to interpret those results...since the ONC information blocking regulations became applicable to health care providers on April 5, 2021, a patient may be able to access test results in parallel to those results’ availability to the ordering clinician.
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No Thanks, I Already Have a Number
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