BOSTON—HITECH ensures that providers have the technology to comply with HIPAA, and HIPAA offers an incentive for providers to include in other parts of their business outside of the EHR system, said Joy Pritts, JD, chief privacy officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, during the second annual HIMSS Privacy & Security Forum.

BOSTON—The healthcare industry needs to stop letting HIPAA drive privacy and security efforts and focus on the patient instead, said Jennings Aske, JD, chief information security and privacy officer at Partners HealthCare in Boston, who spoke during the second annual HIMSS Privacy & Security Forum.

Despite increasing participation in health information organizations, challenges persist in the collection and sharing of patient data, according to a report from HIMSS Analytics.

BOSTON--The vast majority (78 percent) of cyberattacks across all industries require low or very low difficulty to execute. “I could teach this room in one day how to do a low difficulty attack,” said Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of Vericode, speaking at the second annual HIMSS Privacy & Security Forum.

BOSTON--Speaking at the second annual HIMSS Privacy & Security Forum on Sept. 23, Office for Civil Rights Director Leon Rodriguez acknowledged the significance of the date. “Critical elements of the Omnibus Rule go into effect. Despite the changes, I would like to point out that the sun has risen in the same way today.”

The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services is delaying its enforcement of the requirement that certain HIPAA–covered laboratories revise their Notices of Privacy Practices to comply with the modifications made to the HIPAA rules published in the Federal Register on Jan. 25, also known as the Omnibus Rule.

University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento is the winner of the 2013 Enterprise Davies Award of Excellence for its use of health IT, specifically EHRs.

“It’s imperative that there is a chain of trust throughout the exchange of healthcare information. We are only as strong as the weakest link,” said Paul Uhrig, chief administrative and legal officer, chief privacy officer, Surescripts, during a Sept. 17 National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) webinar on health information exchange (HIE) governance activities.