While organizations have made investments into data security tools, employees remain a major barrier to achieving full privacy, according to a survey commissioned by Biscom.

Electronic health records have been a punching bag for many in medicine, with frequent complaints focusing on implementation problems, interference in the patient physician relationship and increased burden on care providers. Despite such problems, EHRs are making progress, with a recent survey finding 79 percent of nurses are satisfied with their systems.

Healthcare organizations’ adherence to the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) guidelines is low, according to a study published April 26 in the Journal of Information in Health and Biomedicine.

In solving a cold case involving a serial rapist and murderer who terrified Northern California for decades, police used a novel approach to track down the killer. Detectives accessed open-source genetic data to locate relatives of a person whose genetic material was collected at a crime scene.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched a new online system providing patients with access to medical images and study reports.

While electronic health records (EHRs) have improved the safety and quality of patient health information, the shift from paper to digital interfaces has introduced a new set of barriers that may contribute to patient harm.

Jeffrey Johnson, MD, a 75- year-old physician, and Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center have parted ways after Johnson refused to take educational courses on the hospital's new electronic medical record (EMR) system.

Privacy and security concerns are linked to reduced patient access of health records and trust in health information technology (HIT). Findings were published April 11 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.