41–50 of 242 posts
I don't want to live in a world where insurance companies and employers force us to hand over this data.
Just feels really creepy to me. Like way over the line.
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Would HIPAA not apply to tech companies when handling health data?
I don’t think so. HIPAA defines the “covered entities” — e.g. hospitals, health plans — that must follow its regulations. Being a company that handles health data does not automatically make you a covered entity. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/190/who-must...
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Just imagine all the stress and suffering caused by the misdiagnosis and unnecessary visits to the doctor and unnecessary tests and imagine that on a grand scale (to say nothing of wasted resources). I’m not saying that to automatically disqualify and increase in the availability of testing – but it does have to be implemented with the proper care and caution.
That is precisely the beauty of something like an Apple Watch. Everybody can be screened without wasting resources and the device can alert if it is really something that needs a specialist. Of course, we are on the early stages of something like that and the devices are not really capable of diagnosing on their own, thus you end up with a spike in consultations. But given some time it should be way more accurate and…
I doubt the tests they are running here will actually go that far. But pervasive testing does need different trade-offs to targeted testing. At least we may have more complete data from which to understand this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would HIPAA not apply to tech companies when handling health data?
I don’t think so. HIPAA defines the “covered entities” — e.g. hospitals, health plans — that must follow its regulations. Being a company that handles health data does not automatically make you a covered entity. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/190/who-must...
For example, the company I work at is not a covered entity because we do have access to PHI we have certain regulations we have to follow. Further, we have to sign BAAs with any covered entity we work with defining who is responsible for what.
Any company which deals with heathcare information should always assume they fall under HIPAA until they've hired lawyers who tell them otherwise.
I saw a few posts on Reddit about how the Apple Watch basically saved people's life: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_... https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/9zrdq5/how_an_a... I'm sure there is a lot more. (Also all the people losing weight)
Sorry for the stupid question, what do you mean by people losing weight?
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When tech companies are subject to the same level of data protection as health care providers, complete with with HIPAA penalties for failure, then I might trust them with medical data.
There are problems with HIPPA for sure. In fact I trust my doctor's patient portal less than most things I log into.
HIPAA is great- enforcement of it is not.
I saw a few posts on Reddit about how the Apple Watch basically saved people's life: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_... https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/9zrdq5/how_an_a... I'm sure there is a lot more. (Also all the people losing weight)
Sorry for the stupid question, what do you mean by people losing weight?
If I'm reading this right, the Apple Watch was actually more accurate in detecting arterial fibrilation episodes than the ECG patch they used for initial confirmation. The Apple Watch identified 2,000 people. The patch confirmed 33% of those, but then another 51% were confirmed by some undisclosed method.
That's not an accurate interpretation. Atrial fibrillation episodes are not constant- they come and go, and different people will have them at different frequencies. It's possible that people had an episode while wearing the watch but haven't had any episodes while wearing the ECG. ECGs are also less comfortable to wear than watches, so it's possible the people they sent them to didn't wear them as often (it's even p…
Apple Watch is technically capable of detecting your heart rate. NSA is capable of enforcing Apple to feed this data to them, real time if needed. Never wear an Apple Watch during lying to powerful people, your heart rate will give you away.