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Experts at a HIMSS21 Global Digital Conference session explored the tension between broader data availability and the importance of IoT data privacy, explaining where HIPAA applies – and where it doesn't.

The law was enacted when the internet was in its infancy and healthcare was still paper-based.

DeSalvo made her way from New Orleans to Washington and while serving as National Coordinator, she realigned ONC and delivered visionary strategic plans for interoperability and health IT, before President Obama nominated her to a key HHS post.

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously.

In case anyone was still wondering about a leadership vacuum at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Karen DeSalvo, MD, is still national coordinator -- a fact that was in evidence Wednesday at the close of the American Medical Informatics Association's annual conference.

National coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, revealed on Tuesday that ONC now has a new Chief Privacy Officer. "She brings a set of rich experiences at the intersection of health information, privacy, and modernizing the health care delivery system," DeSalvo wrote in an email to staff.

Judy Murphy, RN, director of the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, is the latest in a long drumbeat of departures from the agency. Murphy will leave ONC to become chief nursing officer at IBM Healthcare Global Business Services.

Judy Murphy is leaving the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT for a job at IBM.

The exodus from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT continued on Monday when it announced that Doug Fridsma, MD, is stepping down from his post as chief scientist.