At last week's Black Hat Technical Security Conference, computer security expert and type 1 diabetic Jerome Radcliffe gave a presentation in which he described how he was able to remotely interfere with his own insulin pump and glucose meter. From VentureBeat: Radcliffe tackled the problem of hacking the wireless sensors that collect blood sugar information and transmit it to the insulin pump. He had to figure out what kind of chips are used in the sensors. Since the devices emit wireless signals, the manufacturers have to submit designs to the Federal Communications Commission, which investigates whether the device emits anything harmful. Those filings contained valuable information on how the devices operated, Radcliffe said. The data-sheets for the chips also provided good information, and the patent for the $6,000 or so insulin pump was also useful.
A doctor who works at Brigham and Women's and Faulkner hospitals lost an external hard drive in June, and the computer device may have contained medical information for 638 patients, the hospitals said. The Brigham has sent letters to those patients describing the problem. Information related to inpatient hospital stays from July 10, 2009, to Jan. 28, 2011, may have been on the device, including patient names, medical record numbers, dates of admission, medications, and information about diagnosis and treatment. The device did not contain Social Security numbers, insurance numbers, or other financial account information. The doctor lost the hard drive June 21 while traveling in Mexico. But hospital officials said the physician had previously taken steps to delete patient information from the device, so the chances of information remaining on it are low. The Brigham would not identify the physician.
When physicians have electronic health records, it's easier for them to create registries--lists of patients who need particular preventive and chronic care services--according to a new study. And in fact, research suggests these registries may improve quality of care. It's unclear, however, whether most docs will take advantage of these clinical analytics tools. The study in the July issue of Health Affairs looked at the results of surveys given to 163 doctors in three Massachusetts communities. These physicians were among those who received free EHRs and access to health information exchanges in a $50 million pilot program funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, which administered the pilot from 2006-2008, also provided the practices with technical assistance, which of course is not the case for most community physicians who adopt EHRs.
Can the most modern of technologies help solve the health woes in the poorest countries in the world? Some biomedical engineers say yes. They are designing diagnostic laboratories that fit on something as small as a credit card, and give results in minutes instead of hours or days. These devices are sometimes referred to as a "lab on a chip." To use them, all you need to do is obtain a drop of someone's blood. "The drop of blood goes into the chip, and you wait about 15 minutes, and you will get the results," says Samuel Sia, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University in New York. Inside the chip are tiny channels that expose the blood to chemicals that can detect diseases. If a disease is present, a dark line will appear in a window on the chip. Not only is the test portable, it's relatively cheap. The chip itself is only 10 to 20 cents. The cost goes up once you add in the chemicals you need and the appropriate packaging, but "we think we can do it for $2 to $3 dollars per chip, and that would include the ability to diagnose multiple diseases on one card," he says.
While some industry estimates have healthcare IT spending expected to reach $34 billion this year government policies and other related issues are preventing small and midsize IT firms from getting their share of the action, according to a report released by IT trade association CompTIA. Many small and midsize IT firms are sitting on the sidelines of the nation's health IT transformation due to barriers caused mostly by government policies as they relate to education, security and privacy, and technical assistance, said authors of the CompTIA report, Health IT: The Essential Role of Small IT Solution Providers. The report contends that "several minor changes to existing policy" would help enable small IT products and services providers to play a bigger role in helping the nations tens of thousands of healthcare providers--especially smaller medical providers--transition to digitized patient records and other health IT enabled processes.
Health information exchanges have yet to become the darlings of most hospitals and medical practices, but despite their frosty reception, two recent studies suggest you can launch and maintain a viable HIE. These health data sharing organizations will undoubtedly play an important role as the HITECH Act's Meaningful Use programs continue to take shape. So it's time to take a closer look at lessons learned from such success stories. A new report released this week by the National eHealth Collaborative, a public-private cooperative funded by the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT, outlined some of the "secrets" uncovered by 12 successful HIEs. Many HIEs can learn from these lessons--especially considering that there are at least 255 HIEs in the U.S. right now, a 9% increase from 234 HIEs last year, and up significantly from only a few dozen in 2004, according to the eHealth Initiative, another coalition that studies HIEs and which recently completed its own annual report.