Thomas McCoy, M.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital

What Types of Health Care Records Are Breached?

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Thomas McCoy, M.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. McCoy

Thomas McCoy, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

 Response: Big data has the potential to transform how we care for patients but comes with risks of big breaches. My co-author and I use health records in our research and we wanted to better understand the risks that these data might pose to our patients.

MedicalResearch.com:? What are the main findings? 

Response: The majority of breaches are of health care providers whereas the majority of breached records are from health plans. The three largest breaches account for the over half of records breached.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: This study doesn’t speak to any particular solution; rather, it speaks to the aspects of the system that are most often breached: In 2017 it was hacking or IT incidents and networked servers. 

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?

Response: This study speaks to the aspects of the system that are most often breached: In 2017 it was hacking or IT incidents and networked servers; however, much is left to be learned about the specific mechanisms and consequences of these events.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: Large healthcare datasets present a means of transformational discovery but also come with real risks of large scale disclosure. 

Disclosures: Dr. McCoy reports unrelated grants from The Stanley Center at The Broad Institute, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and Telefonica Alpha. Dr. Perlis reports unrelated grants from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute of Mental Health, and Telefonica Alpha; serves on the scientific advisory board for Perfect Health, Genomind, and Psy Therapeutics; and consults to RID Ventures. Dr. Perlis is an editor of JAMA Network Open.

Citation:

McCoy TH, Perlis RH. Temporal Trends and Characteristics of Reportable Health Data Breaches, 2010-2017. JAMA. 2018;320(12):1282–1284. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.9222

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Last Updated on September 28, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD