Physicians’ use of iPods may impact patient privacy
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, January 17, 2005
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Medical professionals have begun using the iPod to store and manipulate medical images; however, the software may not meet the HIPAA security regulations standards as it allegedly does not include security measures such as password protection or encryption, Red Herring reported Wednesday.
Osman Ratib, a radiological sciences professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Antoine Rossett, a Geneva radiologist developed open-source software, OsiriX, to process medical images on iPods because of the device's 3-D rendering capabilities. Physicians can then take those images and share them on iChat for additional discussion, and many are doing just that.
The software has a feature that allows users to delete patients' protected health information (PHI), Ratib told Red Herring. Although exchanging images is not a violation of the regulations if there's no intent to misuse the PHI, hospitals and organizations still need to ensure that all the data entry points are also secure on the device. When the HIPAA security regulation takes effect, the use of iPods may be deemed inappropriate for covered entities unless it meets the required security guidelines.
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