Some of those "fake" Facebook accounts are doctors hiding from their patients

A recent CNET story states that "Facebook estimates that 4.8 percent are duplicate accounts, 2.4 percent are user-misclassified accounts, and 1.5 percent are undesirable accounts." Some of those face accounts are probably doctors.

Have you tried to search for your doctor on Facebook? Many of them are "hiding" from their patients because they don't want to face an awkward situation where a patient tries to "friend" them. Doctors need to have their privacy too. As a result, some doctors create pseudonyms so they can still connect with family and friends.

Facebook continues to modify their privacy settings, but it's nearly impossible to completely "hide" from the rest of the world unless you have zero friends connected to your account. As soon as you expand your social network, people will be able to find you.

Other physicians are embracing social media and leveraging it for viral marketing, peer-to-peer communication, population health education, and advocacy. These physicians are very visible on Facebook. They're blogging, using Twitter, and putting themselves out there on the Internet.

How about your doctor? I bet that you haven't been able to find him/her on Facebook. If you do find him/her, don't be offended if that person rejects your friend request. It's nothing personal.

2nd International Summit on the Future of Health Privacy

Where is health privacy going in the digital era? How well do all the stakeholders understand HIPAA in the world of digital media and mobile technology?

Don't miss the upcoming 2nd International Summit on the Future of Health Privacy. Join national and international experts on health privacy, technology, and law; patient advocates; industry experts and top government officials to discuss today's most urgent health privacy issues.

When: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - Thursday, June 7, 2012

Where: Webinar + Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC 20001

Learn more and register for the live event or webcast here.

HHS announces proposed changes to HIPAA Privacy Rule

HITECH lets people know who has accessed their health information

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning the accounting of disclosures requirement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act Privacy Rule, is available for public comment. The proposed rule would give people the right to get a report on who has electronically accessed their protected health information.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is proposing changes to Privacy Rule, pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. HITECH is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“This proposed rule represents an important step in our continued efforts to promote accountability across the health care system, ensuring that providers properly safeguard private health information,” said OCR Director Georgina Verdugo. “We need to protect peoples’ rights so that they know how their health information has been used or disclosed.”

Security and Privacy in #mHealth

This post was originally published on MedicalSmartphones.com.

800,000 patient records missing?

How would you feel if your local doctor or hospital called you to say that a backup record of your digital medical record is missing? Huh?  I thought that the use of electronic health records of EHRs was supposed to improve patient care, enhance patient privacy, and reduce the risk of these types of problems. I suppose when you can cram 800,000 patient records into something really small (like a portable hard drive, a flash drive, or even a memory card), then it's feasible to "lose" such information easily.

The Boston Globe is reporting that: "Computer files from South Shore Hospital that contain personal information for about 800,000 people may have been lost when they were shipped to a contractor to be destroyed, hospital officials announced yesterday.... The information was on back-up files headed for destruction because they were in a format the hospital said it no longer used. Based on the investigation so far, the hospital said the files contained information on patients, employees, physicians, volunteers, donors, and other business partners associated with South Shore between Jan. 1, 1996, and Jan. 6 of this year."

You can read more here.

Do you still have some old computer backup files? Were you using tapes? Zip disks? CD-ROM? DVD-ROM? External hard drives? (Maybe you even have some important files on 3.5" floppy disks)

Some day, these technologies will be obsolete and you'll need a way to effectively getting rid of all this data.

Doctors using alias names on Facebook

I know several doctors who're on Facebook, but they're using an alias instead of their real names. Why?  They want to maximize their privacy from their patients.

Isn't it ironic? Patients worry about privacy because they're divulging all their medical information. Physicians also want privacy from their patients so that their patients aren't calling their cell phones or stalking them at home.

We live in a world where everyone wants privacy, even on Facebook. You can be on Facebook but you can stay off the search radar. That means that people can't find you even if they search for you on Facebook. For some doctors, that's simply not enough. They'd rather use an alias so they can stay connected with close friends and family. They want to see photos of family members. They want to write on someone's wall. But, they want maximum privacy.

So, as Facebook updates its privacy settings, more physicians may simply choose to use an alias so that they can stay off the grid. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Do we risk losing privacy by switching to electronic health records?

There are many people out there who fear that their medical data will be at greater risk for theft once we convert from a paper system to an electronic system. That's a legitimate fear. After all, we've heard many stories where hospitals and health clinics lost patient data when a laptop got stolen or when hackers infiltrated electronic medical databases. It's much more difficult for someone to break into a file room and dig out your paper medical chart.

Given that we now live in a digital era, we must leverage the latest data security measures to ensure patient privacy and data integrity. Sometimes I wonder if online health portals will have more robust IT security measures compared to online banking portals. What do you value more? Your health data privacy or your money in the bank?

It's good to know that researchers are constantly developing new ways to preserve patient privacy. Some are developing algorithms to protect the privacy of patient data while allowing clinical researchers to use the same patient data to answer clinical questions. Other companies are relying on biometric scanners like fingerprint readers and retina scanners to ensure that hackers are not able to "crack" your password and log in as you. 

As hospitals and medical offices switch to electronic health records this year, I hope that administrators and physicians are thinking about the importance of patient privacy as they handle all this electronic patient data.

Use TrueTwit to reduce Twitter spam

If you've been using Twitter, then you may have discovered that some Twitter users are not real people. They may look like real people, they may have a real photograph, but they're automated Twitter accounts.

To reduce SPAM related to Twitter, you may want to try using TrueTwit. I've recently noticed that more people are using this service to reduce their SPAM content. I don't know how well it works because I've never tried TrueTwit, but it looks interesting.

Speaking of Twitter, make sure to follow me @DrJosephKim

Physicians, patients, and social media (Facebook)

What happens if your patient finds your profile on Facebook and requests to be your friend? What if your patient follows you on Twitter? Have you thought about how social media may impact physician-patient relationships? There's an interesting story on CNN about this topic. In that story, the president of the AMA, Dr. J. James Rohack, is quoted as saying: "Communicating with existing patients online can add value to the patient-physician relationship, however there are certain aspects of medical care that cannot be handled virtually."

There have been many recent stories where patients have looked for their physicians on Facebook. Before you know it, your patient may have access to a lot of your personal information. Phone #, e-mail address, contact list, address, etc. Do you really want your patients to know all of this? Doctors need their privacy too. If you're a single physician, do you want your patients to know that you're single and "Looking for Dating/Relationship" on Facebook?

In the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Sachin H. Jain, M.D., M.B.A. (an intern at the time of writing this article) writes a perspective about "Practicing Medicine in the Age of Facebook." Click here to read the NEJM article. He shares some of his personal experiences about this social media tool and perhaps you may have some stories to share as well.

DNA testing in children, talents, and privacy in China

In China, scientists (probably along with some government officials) are performing genetic tests in young kids to identify skills and talents by analyzing their DNA. That's right, no personal privacy issues here. Submit a DNA sample to see what talents your parents should cultivate. Is this ethical? This is a fascinating video.

My Facebook account got hacked!

Like many others, my Facebook account got hacked last night and I received many messages and phone calls about it. Just to be clear: I'm not stuck in London and I don't need money for a flight back home. This line has been used by scammers who've been using Facebook to steal money from people.

It's really a shame, but I now know so many people who have experienced similar problems with their Facebook accounts. If you'd like to learn more about compromised Facebook accounts, then I encourage you to read this article from the Business Insider.

I'm positive that I didn't click on any type of phishing links, so this hacker got into my account some other way. Fortunately, since I use different passwords for my other accounts, I was able to post messages using Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and several other social media outlets. Never use the same password for multiple accounts! You don't want to lose control of things like your e-mail account, your bank and credit card accounts, etc.

Visit to the Doctor: Today vs. the Future

I had a visit to the doctor yesterday. I admit that I still chuckle inside when I see people filling out paper forms. Someday in the future, when people visit their doctor, they won't be filling out forms. Instead, they will be pressing on-screen buttons on kiosks and tablets. Everything will be digital and paperless. You'll see electronic health records (EHRs) everywhere. We'll be represented by barcodes or some type of sophisticated RFID chip (no, I don't think this chip will get implanted under our skin). However, I am convinced that in the future, doctors will be operating with a paperless system. All our health data will be digital. If you use an Internet-based personal health record (PHR) service, then you'll have access to your information whenever you need it.

Improving Mobile Security and Patient Information

Modern mobile devices are set up so that data can be erased remotely if the device gets stolen. This level of security can help reduce problems related to personal identification and information theft. Imagine losing your UMPC, tablet, netbook, or laptop that contains ultra-sensitive patient information. Would you have the capability of erasing that device after you lose it?

Now, many devices come equipped with the capability to wipe the hard drive if the device gets stolen. This is also true for mobile devices. There are circulating stories of a prototype Windows Mobile 6.5 phone that was stolen last week. The reports state that the data has been erased on this mobile device. I don't think most thieves are thinking that someone is remotely trying to access the device to wipe it clean. Now if we can build a self-destruct mechanism, I think we'd be all set and laptop theft would decrease tremendously.