Are you one of the 2.7 million people that use a Fitbit wearable device to track your health goals? Then you are part of the new trend of consumerism in healthcare. With this trend and the growing number of apps using health data, online access to medical information through the web is becoming more common…
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Did you know that almost 32 million patient records were breached in the first half of 2019? That’s more than double the records breached over the entire 2018 calendar year, according to the latest breach barometer report from IT security firm Protenus. Hacking was the cause of 60% of the total number of breaches throughout the…
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“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard This quote by American physicist and writer William Pollard is a good reminder to focus on active, life-long learning as things are changing quickly, especially in the world…
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When it comes to increasing your healthcare organization’s return on investment (ROI), implementing an information governance program might not be the first thing that comes into your mind. But did you know that information governance (IG) enables an organization to better achieve its goals and strategies with trusted, reliable information, resulting in a return on…
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Did you know that many people use the words “data” and “information” in the same way because they think that the terms are interchangeable? However, there is a difference in the meaning. “Data can be any character, text, word, number, picture, sound, or video and, if not put into context, means little or nothing to…
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Blockchain technology is a hot topic in the healthcare industry. It has the potential to transform healthcare by placing the patient at the center of the healthcare system and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data. The healthcare industry already has a similar platform called the health information exchange (HIE) that facilitates the peer-to-peer…
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Can you imagine a world without mobile devices? Of course not. Mobile devices have taken over our world and are used everywhere. They are having a great influence in our life and are very convenient to help us stay connected. In health care, providers may use them to access electronic protected health information (ePHI). But…
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Health care organizations are collecting and storing large volumes of patient data. Information is when you take the data you have and process and interpret it to transform that data into something you can use to make a decision. So the next step is turning data into information that can be used to help patients.…
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Every kind of medical facility is a potential target for cyber-attacks. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), passed by Congress in 1996, requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health information (PHI). This applies to all forms of PHI, including paper, oral, and electronic (ePHI). (source: http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/formsandpubs/laws/hipaa/Pages/1.00WhatisHIPAA.aspx) In the past few years, hospitals…
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What is telehealth? The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines telehealth as “the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide access to health assessment, diagnosis, intervention, consultation, supervision and information across distance. Telehealth includes such technologies as telephones, facsimile machines, electronic mail systems, and remote patient monitoring devices which are used to…
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