Washington Report- August 16, 2011

August 16, 2011Hi All,The following is this week’s edition of the Dell Services weekly Washington Report.Information and updates in this report include:  Quote of the Week  Indicium Brevis – Ongoing snippets of information for your consideration…  The M Factor – Mobility and the changing landscape of health information security  Analyzing the Ames Straw Poll –You have heard about it in the news, but what exactly is the Ames Straw Poll and what does it mean for the country?  Health IT Roundup – A weekly digest of the latest health technology developments.Quote of the Week“There are some folks in Congress who would rather see their opponents lose than seeAmerica win.”President Obama addressing auto industry workers in Michigan last Thursday.Indicium BrevisOngoing snippets of information for your consideration…HHS Urged to Study HIT-Related Errors- Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R- NC), who ischair of the Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology and a formernurse, called for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study healthinformation technology (HIT)-related medical errors as well as the cost efficiency andbenefits of HIT. In her call to the HHS, Ellmers wrote that she hopes the HHS study will"consider medical error rates -- both human and technological -- so that all errors can bebetter assessed and prevented."The Key to Improving Patient Involvement- Farzard Mostashari, the National Coordinatorfor Health IT, says improving patient access to their health data will be the key to improvingconsumer engagement in healthcare technology. The Office of the National Coordinator forHealth IT (ONC) plans to launch a campaign next month to get consumers more involvedwith their own healthcare through health IT tools. Officials will seek out the ideas andopinions of consumer organizations for ways to involve individuals in health IT. The ONC isplanning activities to inform the general public of the importance of EHRs, mobile healthapplications, and personal health records through an interactive website with videos andstories.New Hampshire Health Information Exchange- Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch(D), recently signed a bill to launch a statewide health information exchange called the New

Hampshire Health Information Organization. The exchange was designed to facilitate thecoordination of care, protect patients’ privacy and security and reduce administrative costs.Primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals can easily share patient information, testresults and visit records securely.The M FactorMobility and the changing landscape of health information securityby Dave Marchand, Chief Technology Officer, Healthcare & Life Sciences Services, DellHealthcare organizations face not only public relations issues each time a medical record islost, the financial impact can also be quite significant. If an employee loses a briefcasecontaining 10 patients’ medical records, the healthcare provider is held liable for costsassociated with losing each of the 10 patients’ records. This cost might not seem like a bignumber in terms of a healthcare organization’s risk-benefit analysis. However, if youconsider that a standard USB drive can hold more than 25,000 medical records and thatlosing these records could cost a healthcare organization $ 6.4 million in data breach costs. That’s a huge penalty for such a small device. As a profusion of mobile devices– laptops, USB drives, cell phones, PDAs, and tablets–continue to swarm the modern marketplace, health information has never been more portable and at risk. The mobile computing environment is further complicated by the intersection of business and consumer technologies. Today both employees and patients canuse unsecured personal mobile devices to carry or access health information. This couldhave unforeseen consequences, as was the case for a US health insurance firm that lost 1.5million clients’ medical reports on an unencrypted portable drive that was discovered to bemissing from the companys office in 2009. The organization’s decision to save onencryption expenses resulted in $250,000 spent on lawsuit fines, $319,500 in letters to theaffected clients, and $1,000,000 for free ID theftmonitoring services to the victims.It should come as no surprise then that mobiledevices were identified as the biggest concern ina Dell moderated Focus Groups with 50 CIOsrepresenting small to large hospitals, IDNs, andcommercial and government entities.

The Department of Health and Human Services conducted a study looking at 189 breachesof 500 or more records, 52 percent were from theft, 20 percent unauthorized access, 16percent from loss. In fact, the Ponemon Institute estimated the total economic burdenof data breaches on US hospitals about $12 billion.Why is the breach of 500 records or more significant? If an organization loses more than 500records containing PHI in a single event, they are required to a) notify HHS no later than 60days, b) notify at least 3 prominent media outlets in the regions where the patients withbreached records live. Upon notification, HHS will post an entry on their website listing theorganization, the breach date, and the number of records breached. In today’s world ofrising consumerism, this type of public notification can potentially lead to loss of futurebusiness.Electronic health information is here to stay. To improve the quality and efficiency ofhealthcare, we need interoperable electronic health records and information managementinfrastructures that make information needed by caregivers for diagnosis and decision-making safe and secure.To properly manage security in a mobile environment, organizations will need to askthemselves several questions. For instance, is the hospitals network virtualized so thatinformation is managed in the datacenter, not on the device? What devices are being usedto access and store health information? Do the devices have enterprise-class informationsecurity? Are these devices employee owned? How can organizations lock lost devices toprevent unauthorized access to information? Can the data on these devices be encrypted?Can I have one mechanism for managing authentication credentials across all devices in theenterprise? While organizations will frame their own security policies, many will find thatincorporating employee-owned devices into those policies could enhance flexibility, reducecosts, and improve satisfaction.Irrespective of their preferred approach, organizations will need to consider informationsecurity best practices as a part of their overall mobile technology and security strategy. Forinstance, both enterprise-integrated mobile devices and employee/patient-owned mobiledevices need to be more secure with identity authentication, encryption, tracking/tracesoftware, anti-malware, backups and extensive monitoring. An integrated approach requiresan enterprise security strategy versus point solutions, and must be driven by an overallmobile security strategy.In an environment where change is the only constant, it is important for organizations toadopt an approach to security threats that enables them to embrace and drive change.Effective mobile device security is a crucial component to making health information trulyaccessible and secure.

Analyzing the Ames Straw PollYou may have heard about it in the news, but what exactly is the Ames Straw Polland what does it mean for the country?While the presidential election is not for another year and three months, the race for theOval Office is now in full swing. As you may have seen in the news over this past weekend,the Republican presidential candidates participated in what’s known as the Ames Straw Poll.Held in Ames, Iowa the straw poll is the first major milestone in the campaign process andhas been a turning point for some candidates. In essence, a straw poll is a vote withnonbinding results. So although last Saturday’s event has no permanent consequences, thepolitical ramifications are significant. Let’s take a look at what the straw poll means.History – As stated above, the Ames Straw Poll is the first major “cattle call” for thepresidential candidates where every major contender convenes in Iowa to illustrate theirunique qualifications for higher office. The first Ames Straw poll took place in 1979 whereGeorge H.W. Bush defeated Ronald Reagan. Over the years Pat Robertson, Bob Dole and PhilGramm (tie), George W. Bush, and Mitt Romney have all won the straw poll, respectively.Because of Iowa’s status being the first state to host a caucus in early January, the straw pollcan be an early indicator of a candidate’s strength, or at times, someone’s weakness. It’simportant to note that with the exception of George W. Bush in 1999, no candidate has goneon to win the Republican nomination after winning the Ames Straw Poll. So while it is aninteresting progress report on a campaign’s strength, it typically does not translate toelection victories throughout the primaries.Meaning – Since the straw poll is an early indicator of which candidates have broadconservative appeal, the implications are significant with regards to weeding out othercandidates. For example, following a lackluster performance at Ames in 1999, both ElizabethDole and Pat Buchanan (both of who were serious candidates) dropped out of thepresidential election less than a month after the results were released. So, following lastweekend’s straw poll we could very likely see a few candidates leave the race. All in all, thestraw poll’s meaning is in essence a hurdle that the candidates must leap over. Some make itover the obstacle while others collapse.2012 Impact – So what is the Ames Straw poll’s impact for the 2012 election? As we saw,Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who received 28.6 percent of the votes,emerged victorious on Saturday. This is a huge victory for her and her campaign as theywere battling to establish themselves as a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, the so-called “front runner”. The straw poll win now means that Bachmann has reemerged as amore serious candidate and will be a competitive force in terms of fundraising and mediaappearances as we continue to approach the primaries. Meanwhile, other candidates likeHerman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Thaddeus McCotter are less likely to succeed movingforward and we could very likely see some drop out in the coming weeks. In fact, TimPawlenty announced his withdrawal Sunday after he ended in third place. Since the polltakes place in Iowa, a more conservative state, the straw poll at least momentarily crownsthe Republican’s new conservative leader. With moderates like Mitt Romney and JonHuntsman battling it out, the Ames winner is now the likely opponent to both candidates.

So as we now have passed the first major milestone in the 2012 presidential campaign, therace remains more competitive than ever as each candidate’s sphere of influence is nowbeginning to take shape.Health IT RoundupA weekly digest of the latest health technology developmentsNextGen 911- The FCC developed a five-step action plan to implement a Next-Gen 911 planthat will facilitate wireless communications between the public and emergency respondents.The plan calls for the FCC to develop mechanisms to provide location data, enable the publicto send photos, videos and texts to answering points, develop and implement technicalstandards for mobile-based communications, develop a governance framework and afunding model for the next-gen communications system.New Mobile Devices Needed- Frost & Sullivan published a white paper “Mobile Devices andHealthcare: What’s New, What Fits, and How Do You Decide?” urging the healthcare industryto turn from the outdated computer platform and use mobile devises. The whitepaperoutlines several benefits and recommendations for the future of smartphones and tablets,while pointing out that different types of healthcare workers need to work off of differentdevices.Facebook App Contest- The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of theAssistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is holding a contest called the “LifelineFacebook App Challenge” for software developers to create a Facebook application thatcould connect Facebook users during a disaster. Ideally, the new app will utilize Facebook’sexisting networking and locating capabilities to increase preparedness, locate potentialvictims and accelerate the spread of information during disasters.For Past UpdatesFor past editions of the Washington Report, click here. Also, follow DellHealth on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/DellHealth. To contact me, send an email toAsk_Dell@Dell.com.

Washington Report- August 16, 2011

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Washington Report- August 16, 2011 Document Transcript