HIMSS

> Someone at Brigham and Women's Hospital mistakenly faxed patient health records to a Boston investment bank, despite a series of attempts to inform the hospital that something was amiss. The information included the results of tests for sexually-transmitted diseases. Article

> An article in The Washington Post questions the loyalties of non-profit patient advocacy groups like …

> GE Healthcare revenue was up about 15 percent last year. GE's fourth-quarter profit was down 46 percent as the company took a loss from the closing of its insurance business. Release

> HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt has canceled his keynote at next month's HIMSS in San Diego. He will attend a conference on Avian Flu in Europe instead. …

There are now more than 500 separate state, federal and private HIT interoperability projects. HIMSS and the University of Maryland have collaborated on a HIT Dashboard (translation: Web site) that tracks progress in key areas including regional health information organizations, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grants, and the Doctor's Office Quality Information Technology (DOQ-IT) project. Highly useful and certain to be much loved by physicians. For the next project, may we humbly suggest a Health IT acronym and buzzword decoder. Article

> Too little, too late? Embattled Drew/King Medical Center in Los Angeles says it is firing three physicians accused of misconduct. Story

> Could a drug cocktail have been responsible for a miracle turnaround in the case of a New York fireman in a vegetative state? …