Seven trends in health information privacy

Once again into the breach–patient health information (PHI) data breaches, that is. This estimated $6 billion albatross affects all aspects of eHealth, EHRs and data collected by remote monitoring–from contained and probably inadvertent (Geisinger, TA 4 Jan) to large dumps accessible by search engines (NY-Presbyterian, TA 29 Sept). Healthcare IT News’ feature article, distilling seven interviews including Larry Ponemon of the Ponemon Institute [TA 2 Dec], leads off with his statement: “Endemic failure to keep pace with best practices and advancing technology has resulted in antiquated data security, governance, policy plaguing in the healthcare industry.” If that is not bracing enough, read on for HITN’s predictions on the following healthcare information privacy trends for 2011.