"Got an upcoming doctor's appointment? Perhaps a prescription to refill or a dental cleaning? Odds are your phone has been pinging away with incessant reminders about it.
Why it matters: It's not just you. There's a growing flood of emails, texts, phone calls and other prods to patients that — beyond just potentially becoming another digital annoyance — may make them tune out the important stuff."
The 25-year-old who recently started his medical career had to stitch up a little boy whose body was pierced all over by shrapnel – at least 14 open wounds covered his body, from head to toe.
There was no anaesthesia to be had. Al-Buhaisi stitched each one closed, a process that took two whole hours.
‘We’re so alone in this world, they have forgotten us, the world must not grow numb to the suffering of the people in Gaza, we all bleed the same blood’.
What I found interesting here was #SamualJefferson said "In #Germany, #hospital#doctors...are given considerable financial incentives to offer superfluous or extraneous treatments, which may put patients at unnecessary risk but boost hospital finances."
Same as the #USA#privatehealth system then.
Our #NHS is so precious & I hope we never return to health depending on how much money you have. Having lived in the #States, I've seen how that destroys lives. #SaveOurNHS
Anybody know anything about povidone iodine nasal spray as a treatment for #ChronicSinustitis?
Asking for a me. 😁
My chronic sinusitis mainly manifests as constant slight congestion & post-nasal drip. 9 times out of 10 when I catch a cold, the increased fluid build-up makes me susceptible to a bacterial infection....
The lack of coherent #workforce strategy for the #NHS, leading to a reliance on temporary staff & overtime payments (for already stretched staff) has led to a massive £10bn a year bill.... money which might have been better spent paying #Nurses & #Doctors better & improving their working conditions to encourage more new #workers into #healthcare.
"On 13 January 1953, the #USSR-based newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya reported that #Soviet Union Premier Joseph #Stalin had arrested nine #doctors, six of whom were #Jewish, for conspiring to assassinate the country’s political leadership. The “killer doctors,” as they were referred to, were accused of being members of the U.S. and British intelligence services and of serving the interests of international #Jewry."
Health Plans Can’t Dodge Paying for Expensive New #Cancer Treatments, Says Michigan’s Top #Insurance Regulator
After ProPublica reported on a #health insurer that refused to cover the only medicine that could save a cancer patient’s life, #Michigan insurance regulators clarified that, by law, many plans must pay for any clinically proven treatments.
There is a need for 100 more doctors in the health system to fill the current shortage in the public health service says Professor Asiata Dr. Satupaitea Viali, the Dean of the Oceania University of Medicine.
#channel4 news gives an overview of the #DoctorsStrikes in the UK nations, yet somehow manages to ignore the fact that there's no strike in #Scotland because #ScottishGovernment sat down and negotiated. Tories won't respect #Doctors just as they don't respect the rest of us #GTTO
TITLE: Polite Example Letter to a Health-Related Website Endangering Your Privacy
THIS is the letter I wish more people would send to health-related websites and merchants when they observe a privacy problem!
fullscript.com is a service that dispenses non-pharma products to patients (like medical grade supplements) based upon doctor's orders. You have to be referred by a physician to get a patient account. They even have a way of integrating with EHR systems.
They need to get security right.
To: Fullscript Support <support@fullscript.com>
Dear Fullscript Team:
I have always appreciated being able to order from your excellent website.
Your service strives to supply patients with supplements and medicines ordered by doctors. As such, what is ordered can give insight into medical conditions that patients may have.
You may or may not be covered by HIPAA regulations, but I'm sure you will agree that ethically and as a matter of good business practice, Fullscript would want to maintain medical privacy of patients given that medical practices trust you.
This is why I'm concerned with the HIGH level of 3rd party tracking going on throughout your product catalogue. On your login page, the Firefox web browser displays a "gate" icon to let me know that information (I believe my email address) is being shared with Facebook. This is also the case with your order checkout page (see attached screenshot showing Facebook "gate" icon, as well as Privacy Badger and Ghostery plug-in icons in upper right-hand corner blocking multiple outbound data connections).
Privacy Badger is a web browser plugin that detects and warns of or stops (depending upon severity) outbound information from my web browser to 3rd party URLs. Directly below is Privacy Badger's report from your checkout page:
~~~~
Privacy Badger (privacybadger.org) is a browser extension that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. Privacy Badger is made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that fights for your rights online.
Privacy Badger blocked 23 potential trackers on us.fullscript.com:
insight.adsrvr.org
js.adsrvr.org
bat.bing.com
static.cloudflareinsights.com
script.crazyegg.com
12179857.fls.doubleclick.net
12322157.fls.doubleclick.net
googleads.g.doubleclick.net
connect.facebook.net
www.google-analytics.com
analytics.google.com
www.google.com
www.googletagmanager.com
fonts.gstatic.com
ad.ipredictive.com
trc.lhmos.com
snap.licdn.com
o927579.ingest.sentry.io
js.stripe.com
m.stripe.network
m.stripe.com
q.stripe.com
r.stripe.com
~~~
Please note that I was able to successfully checkout WITH Privacy Badger blocking protections on, so most of this outbound information was NOT necessary to the operation of your website.
There are several advertising networks and 3rd party data brokers receiving some kind of information.
I am aware that a limited amount of data sharing can be necessary to the operation of a website (sometimes). I am also aware that this all is not malicious -- web development and marketing does not usually talk to the legal department before deploying tools useful to gathering site usage statistics (Crazy Egg and Google Analytics). However, these conversations need to happen.
As for "de-identified" or "anonymized" data -- data brokers collect information across several websites, and so are able to reconstruct patient identities even if you don't transmit what would obviously be PHI (protected health information). As an example, if Google sees the same cookie or pixel tracking across multiple websites and just one of them sends a name, then Google knows my name. If Facebook is sent my email address (as looks to be the case), and I happen to have a Facebook account under that same email address, then Facebook knows who I am -- and can potentially link my purchases with my profile.
The sorts of computing device data that you are collecting and forwarding here may well qualify as PHI. Please see:
Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates
<https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-online-tracking/index.html>
This HHS and OCR guidance includes many 3rd party tracking technologies.
What I would really like to see happen is:
a) A thorough look at what information your website is sending out to what 3rd parties, along with an understanding of how data brokers can combine information tidbits from multiple websites to build profiles.
b) Use of alternative marketing analysis tools that help your business. For example, there are alternatives to Google Analytics that do not share all that data with Google and still give your marketing team the data they need.
c) An examination if you are sharing information about what products patients are clicking on and/or purchasing with 3rd parties. This would be especially problematic. (Crazy Egg tracks client progress through a website, but I'm unclear if they keep the information or just leave it with you.)
d) Use of alternative code libraries that are in-house. For example, web developers frequently utilize fonts.gstatic.com, but you could likely get fonts and other code sets elsewhere or store them in-house.
I appreciate you taking time to read this and working on the privacy concerns of your patients and affiliated medical practices.
Thanks.
~~~~~~
#AI #CollaborativeHumanAISystems #HumanAwareAI #artificialintelligence #psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy #EHR #medicalnotes #progressnotes @psychotherapist@a.gup.pe @psychotherapists@a.gup.pe @psychology@a.gup.pe @socialpsych@a.gup.pe @socialwork @psychiatry@a.gup.pe #mentalhealth #technology #psychiatry #healthcare #patientportal #HIPAA #dataprotection #infosec @infosec@a.gup.pe #doctors #hospitals #BAA #businessassociateagreement #coveredentities #privacy #HHS #OCR #fullscript
A quick follow-up to this. I eventually got a polite blow-off letter from them about how they strive to value customer privacy or some such. Very little I can do. Have to decide if a complaint to US government about possible HIPAA violations is worth it.
Samoa: 100 more doctors needed (www.samoaobserver.ws)
There is a need for 100 more doctors in the health system to fill the current shortage in the public health service says Professor Asiata Dr. Satupaitea Viali, the Dean of the Oceania University of Medicine.