Browsing by Subject "HIPAA"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Enhancing Critical Awareness of Health Information from Wearable Devices
    (2016-04-08) Kumari, Vishakha
    With the advent of wearable health and fitness tracking devices, the way health care will be delivered will change because of the opportunity for people and providers to more easily track and respond to even small changes in a person’s heath status. Wearable devices perceive and record health information about users continuously and discreetly. One question is whether there is a distinction between information that may be less sensitive, such as how many steps someone walks, and more sensitive medical information, such as someone’s blood sugar or heart rate. The awareness of people about the distinction between non-sensitive versus sensitive information has to be analyzed, which will address how comfortable people are in sharing this information when they know the risks involved. Unfortunately, health information is not considered protected health information unless it is shared with doctors, hospitals or any third-party vendors (Business Associates) of these entities. These devices are not covered under the Health Care Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and thus there can be little expectation of privacy or security as provided for under this legislation. Although not required, at least one major vendor for wearable devices has indicated that its devices are compliant with HIPAA, which results in questions about why this vendor chose to comply with HIPAA and why other vendors are not yet following suit. My research explores the perception of people with respect to how the information gathered from wearable and fitness tracking devices is used and shared by vendors and third parties and what options might need to be provided to users by vendors or mandated by law to increase the security and privacy of this information. As part of my research, I have reviewed the terms of service and other information for a selected number of devices. References 1. Meingast, M., Roosta, T., & Sastry, S. (2006). Security and privacy issues with health care information technology. In Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006. EMBS'06. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE (pp. 5453-5458). IEEE. 2. Motti, V. G., & Caine, K. (2015). Users’ Privacy Concerns About Wearables. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security (pp. 231-244). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Health Privacy Is Difficult but Not Impossible in a Post-HIPAA Data-Driven World
    (2014) Terry, Nicolas P.
    In the 13 years since their promulgation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules and their enforcement have shown considerable evolution, as has the context within which they operate. Increasingly, it is the health information circulating outside the HIPAA-protected zone that is concerning: big data based on HIPAA data that have been acquired by public health agencies and then sold; medically inflected data collected from transactions or social media interactions; and the health data curated by patients, such as personal health records or data stored on smartphones. HIPAA does little here, suggesting that the future of health privacy may well be at the state level unless technology or federal legislation can catch up with state-of-the-art privacy regimes, such as the latest proposals from the European Commission.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Progress in Healthcare: Securing a New Common Norm in Medical Technology
    (2016-04-08) Gookins, Alexandra
    In the modern age of Healthcare Technology, there are vast changes in patient records. In the 1960s, the first use of EHRs (Electronic Health Records) was implemented in the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota. (Earl) However, EHRs continue to enhance at a rapid rate and are becoming one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. The problem that arises with keeping confidential patient information on the cloud or servers is the access to hackers looking to steal information for misuse and causing detrimental harm to patients’ privacy. Thus, HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) has continued to put rules and regulations into effect across the board of EHR systems. The issue is that these security measures do not fall on to the EHR system software creators but the medical practices themselves. (Health IT) But who in these practices or hospitals are going to regulate these significant measures? Many do not know that there is a software on the market today what will handle these tedious adjustments for the safety of the businesses and patients. Software companies like HIPAA One will do just that. (HIPAA One) These small companies will work with your current EHRs in compliance with the federally regulated HIPAA laws to ensure practices and hospitals alike are providing safety of patient information by using security risk assessment tools. However, numerous users of electronic health records do not use these critical tools because there are not well known. I have observed many EHR systems, leading me to believe the importance of an EHR software that will integrate HIPAA compliant technology without a middle man such as HIPAA One; putting this responsibility on software designers instead of practices. 1. Earl, Elizabeth. Health IT & CIO Review. 16 Februrary 2015. 01 March 2016. . 2. Health IT. n.d. https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/security-risk-assessment-tool. 01 March 2016. 3. HIPAA One. n.d. 05 March 2016.