Poll finds health industry 'not adequately prepared' to protect patients' digital records

Reuters reports on a new poll of health executives that indicates that the industry is not adequately prepared to protect patients' digital health records. Still, according to the Boston Globe, Dr. David Blumenthal, offered a positive view of medical technology in a Wednesday night speech, saying that electronic medical records made him a better doctor.

Reuters: Health Industry Lacks Patient Data Safeguards: Poll
New technologies are flooding into the health care world, but the industry is not adequately prepared to protect patients from data breaches, according to a report published on Thursday. A vast majority of hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and insurers are eager to adapt to increasingly digital patient data. However, less than half are addressing implications for privacy and security, a survey of health care industry executives by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP found. PwC's Health Research Institute interviewed 600 executives in the spring of this year and also found that less than half of their companies have addressed issues related to the use of mobile devices. Less than a quarter have addressed implications of social media (Selyukh, 9/22).

The Boston Globe: Despite Flaws, Electronic Records Help Doctors
When Dr. David Blumenthal was appointed by the Obama administration in 2009 to coordinate national efforts to promote electronic health records, his wife thought it was "a huge failure of vetting," he told an audience at a Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare event last night. … Blumenthal, who left his federal role earlier this year and is a Harvard Medical School professor of health care policy, said that as he learned to use the electronic systems as a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in the early 2000s, he became a believer. Quite simply, he said, the electronic records made him a better doctor (Conaboy, 9/21).