I realize it's been quite a while since I taught - or was in school myself - but I'm distressed…
Morning Headlines 7/3/14
Big cyber hack of health records is ‘only a matter of time’
A Politico report interviews IT security experts who fear that health IT is primed for a massive cyberattack on par with the recent headline grabbing attacks on Target and Yahoo. Experts say that medical records are worth far more on the black market than credit card data, and the infastructure protecting the data is far more vulnerable to attack.
Veterans Affairs Selects ASM Research to Modernize Electronic Health Records
Accenture signs a three-year $162 million VA contract to support and enhance VistA. Accenture will provide workflow analysis, software development, implementation, and end-user training. The project will address interoperability and data security, and will provide an enhanced web-based user interface to the Computerized Patient Record System used by VA clinicians.
Executive Insights on Healthcare Technology Safety, 2014 Report
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation has teamed up with the ECRI institute to publish a healthcare technology safety report. The 2014 edition, its inaugural report, focuses on alarm systems, Luer connectors, cybersecurity, batteries, and recalls.
So what’s the big deal if someone steals my medical records? So they’ll see that I am 30 lbs over weight, have a bad hip and that the doctor put is finger up my rear last year. Not much they can do with that..
Only sell it to everyone on earth. Including your next prospective employer who might just decide you’ll raise the cost of their insurance too much.
Then I can just get on ObamaCare…
Signed, Chicken little…
The Accenture contract will work on getting improvements into this VistA software:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VistA#mediaviewer/File:VistACPRScover.png
It’s used so extensively that going to something that’s better would be the best route instead of going to a new solution. Why the DoD has to have something completely new and different at high taxpayer cost is beyond real!
TPD!
I’m not sure why the VA is paying Accenture $162 million over 3 years to upgrade VistA when it will undoubtedly be replaced in the next few years. It seems like a waste of my federal income tax dollars.
Bob the Builder: I was less concerned for your getting insurance than I was for your getting a job. That being said, I’m not one for hyperbole. Do I think medical records being stolen are the end of the world? No. But I also think your off-hand dismissal of the problem downplays the consequences that could be very real for individual people out there. Doing our best to secure them shouldn’t be controversial.