Editor's Note The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Treasury Department on July 6 issued a joint cybersecurity advisory warning of ransomware threats against the US healthcare and public sectors from hackers sponsored by North Korea, Becker’s Health IT July 6 reports. The FBI explained the threat comes from…
Editor's Note More than 600 healthcare organizations, including hospitals, practices, and other health facilities, have been affected by a data breach on an accounts receivable management company called Professional Finance Company's network, Becker’s Health IT July 5 reports. The ransomware attack on Professional Finance Company, which provides services to healthcare…
Editor's Note On Friday, June 24, the American Hospital Association (AHA) voiced support for the Protecting and Transforming Cyber Health Care Act (PATCH Act)—legislation that would “require medical device manufacturers to meet certain cybersecurity requirements when seeking approval for devices that are internet connected or include software” in order to…
Editor's Note According to an “electronic health information” release by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), titled “HHS Needs to Improve Communications for Breach Reporting” and published on May 27, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has seen an increase in reported breaches of health information since 2015,…
Editor's Note In this study from the University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, researchers developed a machine learning model that improved the ability to predict surgery end times and PACU discharge at a range of start times in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC). Of 13,447 surgical procedures analyzed, the…
Editor's Note Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York City, have developed a machine learning model that uses physiological metrics collected from wearable devices that can detect and predict COVID-19 in healthcare workers (HCWs). A total of 407 HCWs from 7 hospitals were enrolled in the…
Editor's Note On June 13, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued new guidance for HIPPA-covered healthcare providers and health plans to comply with privacy, security, and breach notification requirements when using remote communication technologies to provide “audio-only” telehealth services, the American Hospital…
Editor's Note Machine learning (ML) models designed by surgeons at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston show a high level of accuracy in predicting which types of patients are most likely to have a hernia recurrence or other complications after surgery in this study. Of 725…
Editor's Note The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), designed by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University, has performed laparoscopic intestinal anastomoses in four experiments on pig tissue without human help. The robot outperformed surgeons using manual-laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical techniques in the consistency of suture spacing and bite…
Editor's Note Artificial intelligence (AI)-based scheduling significantly improved physician engagement and reduced burnout, in this study presented by Ochsner Health researchers, January 28, at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2022, the Anesthesiology Business Event, in Dallas. The AI-based scheduling software, which created fair and flexible schedules that supported work-life…