Fergie's Tech Blog

Health Hazard: Computers Spilling Your History

Milt Freudenheim and Robert Pear write in The New York Times:

Bill Clinton's identity was hidden behind a false name when he went to New York-Presbyterian Hospital two years ago for heart surgery, but that didn’t stop computer hackers, including people working at the hospital, from trying to get a peek at the electronic records of his medical charts.

The same hospital thwarted 1,500 unauthorized attempts by its own employees to look at the patient records of a famous local athlete, said J. David Liss, a vice president at New York-Presbyterian.

And just last September, the New York City public hospital system said that dozens of workers at one of its Brooklyn medical centers, including doctors and nurses, technicians and clerks, had improperly looked at the computerized medical records of Nixzmary Brown, a 7-year-old who prosecutors say was beaten to death by her stepfather last winter.

posted by Fergie @ 12/03/2006 10:55:00 AM