patient data

The Connecting for Health Initiative said it has successfully shared thousands of clinical case files between regional health organizations in three areas of the country. Boston's MA-SHARE, the Indiana Health Information Exchange and the Mendocino Health Records Exchange participated in the project. The decentralized system used by Connecting for Health relies on a Record Locater Service (RLS), rather than a unique patient identifier.

Organizers said the tests show that a …

Critics have argued for years that healthcare IT systems pose unusual risks. Many have wondered what happens if a programming mistake causes important patient data to get scrambled. That's exactly what appears to have transpired in the UK, where a bug in the NHS version of the iSoft iPM patient administration system appears to have created the potential for potentially serious clinical mistakes. Far from being an isolated issue, the problem appears to be fairly widespread, affecting …

Harvard Law School said it will create a new center specializing in cutting edge issues at the forefront of genetics, medicine and technology. The center will examine thorny legal questions including the debates over cloning, end-of-life care and physician assisted suicide. Also likely to receive significant attention: controversies over the privacy of patient data and third-party access to electronic medical records. Funding for the project was provided by a $10 million grant from the …

Support appears to be growing for a national data standard for patient identification. Proponents of a National Health Information Network (NHIN) have played down the idea of a national patient identifier for years fearing a political fight with privacy groups that could slow or stall progress. Last week, the Commission on Systemic Interoperability, a federal advisory group, released a report supporting a system that will allow patient data to be correctly identified and shared. A patient …