Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Getting Medical Records Through An App Would Be Fast. But It Might Also Lead To Serious Data Abuses, Doctors Group Warns.
The New York Times: Getting Your Medical Records Through An App? There’s A Catch. And A Fight.
Americans may soon be able to get their medical records through smartphone apps as easily as they order takeout food from Seamless or catch a ride from Lyft. But prominent medical organizations are warning that patient data-sharing with apps could facilitate invasions of privacy — and they are fighting the change. The battle stems from landmark medical information-sharing rules that the federal government is now working to complete. (Singer, 9/3)
The Oregonian: 122,000 Providence Health Plan Customers May Be Affected By Data Breach
The personal information of as many as 122,000 customers of Providence Health Plan’s dental program in Oregon may have been compromised in a security breach at the program’s administrator, Virginia-based Dominion National. The timing of the breach? Dominion doesn’t really know, but said it may have started up to nine years ago. The company sent an ambiguous letter to Providence customers this month saying an unauthorized party may have accessed its computer servers and personal information. (Sickinger, 8/30)
NPR: A Speedy Test For Norovirus Could Help Water Supplies Check For Contamination
Norovirus tends to makes the news when an outbreak occurs on cruise ships. But the virus affects many more people than ocean-going vacationers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates some 20 million people suffer acute intestinal illness from norovirus each year in this country. It's responsible for more than half of all cases of foodborne illness in the United States. (Palca, 9/30)
Stat: AI System Can Create Novel Drug Candidates In Just 46 Days
It often takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to discover a novel drug candidate. It requires the identification of promising molecules that can grab on to the right protein, synthesizing a compound, and then testing it. The process is so complicated that it has defied most computational methods to shorten it. But a paper published Monday in Nature Biotechnology describes a new method using artificial intelligence that, within 46 days, generated compounds capable of hitting a specific disease target. (Ross, 9/2)
