Government & Policy

IT security is complicated, made even more so by the dynamic nature of technology and the ever challenging threat landscape. It may be best to think of IT security as a chronic illness, a condition that requires ongoing treatment, testing, and re-evaluations.

When it comes to keeping patient data secure, vigilance must be institutionalized, says Daniel Berger, president and CEO of Redspin, Inc., a healthcare IT security assessment company based in Santa Barbara, CA.

Enterprises cannot move sensitive data to the cloud while relying blindly on cloud service provider security and assuming that the data is safe.

In efforts to guarantee patient access to their lab tests, the nation's largest pharmacies are now promising to adopt the Blue Button personal health record.

Last month, the Identity Theft Resource Center produced a survey showing that medical-related identity theft accounted for 43 percent of all identity thefts reported in the United States in 2013. According to HHS, the theft of a computer or other electronic device is involved in more than half of medical-related security breaches.

A renowned cancer researcher says genomics have put America on the brink of a much better treatment for cancer, but it is going to take a megawatt petabyte effort and that old stickler, standards.

With an eye on reducing hospital readmissions and boosting patient care coordination, Partners HealthCare at Home, a division of Partner's HealthCare in Boston, is rolling out new remote monitoring technology.

The ONC's Meaningful Use Workgroup will submit draft recommendations for Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program on Feb. 14. So far, the workgroup has developed a number of ideas that have consensus, but clinical quality measures may not be as easy to include in digital systems as previously thought.

CMS is extending the deadline for eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2013 reporting year from 11:59 p.m. EST on Feb. 28, 2014, to 11:59 p.m. EST March 31, 2014.

A health IT consultant described the "Tower of Babel"-eqsue barrier she encounters coordinating disparate EHR systems to a panel at the Health Innovation Day conference. William Check, CTO at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association responded: "What you just described could have been the cable industries. It's amazing the parallel here."