Held-up physician results in Boston data breach
An armed robbery led to a breach of 999 patients' data at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
A physician was held up at gunpoint on Sept. 24, according to a CBS Local report, and forced to disclose the pass codes and encryption keys to a laptop and cell phone.
The robbery did not take place on the hospital campus and was reported to the Boston Police Department.
The devices contained information of patients who received treatment at BWH's neurology and neurosurgery programs between October 2011 and September 2014, as well as some individuals participating in research studies. Compromised information may include patient names, medical record number, age, medications and treatment and diagnosis information. In its notification to patients, the hospital said that no financial account information, insurance numbers or Social Security numbers were included.
BWH does not know whether the information on the laptop and cell phone has been accessed, and neither device has been recovered.
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.