Protected Health Information

Walmart Increases Access to Digital Health Records for Vaccinations

March 23, 2021 - Walmart will now make digital health records available for those vaccinated at Walmart or its subsidiary, Sam’s Club, so they can easily access their vaccination status as needed, according to a recent press release.  Walmart will tap the open, interoperable SMART Health Cards standard, which is currently being developed under the...


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HHS Offers $5M for Studying Use of Health IT During Pandemic

by Samantha McGrail

HHS recently announced a new funding opportunity announcement through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that will award $5 million to support research efforts gauging provider use...

Iron Mountain Announces $225M Data Center Campus Expansion

by Samantha McGrail

Storage and information management leader Iron Mountain announced the expansion of its data center campus in North Virginia, with the construction of VA-2 underway. Iron Mountain predicted that it...

One-Quarter of Medical Devices Still Running Outdated Windows 7

by Fred Donovan

More than a quarter of medical devices are running Windows 7, which will no longer be supported by Microsoft after January 14 of next year, according to a survey of 600 global healthcare IT...

Healthcare Internet of Things Can Expose Networks, Data to Attacks

by Fred Donovan

The proliferation of healthcare internet of things (IoT) has exposed a vulnerable attack surface that can be exploited by cybercriminals determined to steal PHI and disrupt healthcare delivery, warned...

HHS IT Security Program “Not Effective,” Says OIG FISMA Audit

by Fred Donovan

HHS OIG has determined that the department’s IT security program was “not effective” because it did not meet security levels required by the Federal Information Security Modernization...

Network, Cloud Monitoring Is Healthcare Cybersecurity Challenge

by Fred Donovan

Monitoring of networks, endpoints, and cloud assets is a continuing cybersecurity challenge for many healthcare organizations, according to CynergisTek’s 2019 annual report. This is bad news...

GAO: HHS Fails to Implement High-Priority Health IT Recommendations

by Fred Donovan

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not implemented four high-priority health IT recommendations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), according to a recent report by the...

Healthcare Hardest Hit by Cyberattacks, Data Breaches in 2018

by Fred Donovan

Healthcare was the leading industry for cyberattacks and data breaches last year, making up 41 percent of cyber incidents tracked by specialty insurer Beazley. The financial services industry was in a...

HL7 Standards Could Open Health IT Infrastructure to Cyberattacks

by Fred Donovan

The HL7 standards, key for healthcare interoperability, could open up healthcare infrastructure to cyberattacks, warned researchers at the University of California (UC) system. The HL7 standards...

Early Phase EHR Adopters Focus on Health IT Infrastructure

by Fred Donovan

Healthcare organizations in the early phase of EHR adoption are focused primarily on health IT infrastructure, such as interoperability and data security, according to a roundtable of 31 high-level...

Gustave Roussy Institut, Embleema Team on Healthcare Blockchain

by Fred Donovan

Gustave Roussy Insitut, a Paris-based cancer center, has formed a partnership with Embleema, a New York-based healthcare blockchain network, to develop blockchain health data sharing applications for...

Hospitals Are at High Risk of Cyberattacks, Warns Moody’s

by Fred Donovan

Hospitals are at high risk for cyberattacks, judged Moody’s Investors Service in a new report.  Other sectors that are at high risk for cyberattacks include banks, securities firms, and...

Researchers Test Blockchain for Clinical Trails’ Data Integrity

by Fred Donovan

Researchers at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a proof-of-concept method for using blockchain to safeguard data integrity of clinical trials. Blockchain creates an...

HHS Warns Health IT Infrastructure Could Put Patient Data At Risk

by Fred Donovan

Healthcare’s increasing dependence on interconnected health IT infrastructure, such as electronic health records and connected medical devices, could put sensitive patient data at risk, warned...

Blockchain To Have Biggest Impact on Healthcare, Say 1/3rd of Investors

by Fred Donovan

One-third of institutional investors believe that blockchain technology will have the biggest impact on the healthcare industry, according to a survey by the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)...

Healthcare Organizations Need Backup Data Centers for Emergencies

by Fred Donovan

Healthcare organizations should have primary and secondary data centers for redundant operations in the event of a disaster or downtime, advised consulting firm Crowe. These primary and alternative...

How DevOps Can Impact Healthcare IT Infrastructure

by Bill Kleyman

I’ve really been enjoying diving into the world of DevOps. More specifically, I’ve had the chance to speak with leading healthcare providers to better understand how and where they’re...

Windows Vulnerability Potentially Exposes Healthcare Networks

by Elizabeth O'Dowd

Windows faces a further vulnerability as the latest update to the meltdown bug exposed further weaknesses in the Microsoft OS. Organizations need to make a further update to their endpoints and servers...

Threat Intelligence Supports Advanced Health IT Security

by Elizabeth O'Dowd

Health IT infrastructure technology continues to advance as organizations go through digital transformations. More advanced IT tools also means that entities are threated by more advanced cybersecurity...