In Era Of Health Care Hacks, Some Worry Medical Devices Are Too Vulnerable To Attack
The Food and Drug Administration has become increasingly concerned about the issue and is working to coordinate with other agencies on how to respond if a serious medical device hack were to occur. In other health IT news, patients with diabetes turn to video chats to help manage their disease, and a new study looks at the effectiveness of fitness trackers.
The Hill:
FDA, Industry Fear Wave Of Medical-Device Hacks
Regulators and medical-device-makers are bracing for an expected barrage of hacking attacks even as legal and technical uncertainties leave them in uncharted territory. Tens of millions of electronic health records have been compromised in recent years, a number that is growing and, some say, underreported. (Harper, 4/10)
The New York Times:
Tackling Weight Loss And Diabetes With Video Chats
About a year and a half ago, Robin Collier and her husband, Wayne, were like millions of other Americans: overweight and living with Type 2 diabetes. Despite multiple diets, the couple could not seem to lose much weight. Then Ms. Collier’s doctor told her she was going to need daily insulin shots to control her diabetes. That was the motivation she needed. “I made up my mind right then and there,” said Ms. Collier, 62, an administrator at an accounting firm in Lafayette, Ind. “I said to myself, ‘I’m not going on insulin. I’m too young to have this disease.’” (O'Connor, 4/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Your Fitness Tracker Can Count Your Steps, But It's Not That Good At Monitoring Your Heart Rate
Using that nifty fitness monitor to keep track of your heart rate while you exercise? If you exercise while remaining still, it may work pretty well. If you move while exercising, not so much. A study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine put four wearable fitness trackers to the test — both against one another and against the kind of electrocardiography monitor you’d probably encounter while taking a stress test in an doctor’s office. (Healy, 4/10)
CNN:
Fitness Trackers' Heart Rate Monitoring Accurate Enough For Most, Study Says
When tested alongside electrocardiograph (ECG) technology, devices from Fitbit and Mio performed reasonably well at measuring resting and active heart rates, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "It's very exciting because we've had so much advance in technology during such a short period," lead researcher Lisa Cadmus-Bertram said. "These trackers are such an enormous improvement over what we used to have." (Jimison, 4/11)
