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A billion medical images are exposed online

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Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#21
post #12
post #7

% curl -L 'https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/10/medical-images-exposed-pacs/' curl: (7) Failed to connect to guce.advertising.com port 443: Connection refused WTF? I have a lying DNS server, and it's getting ridiculous. Here's the outline for people who care about privacy/tracking/GDPR, etc. https://outline.com/Ep5u4K

For now I'd be happy if techcrunch was blocked so people had to submit other sources. I've not been able to find a way to read content on that domain for months now. Edit: PS: unlike many here I've little against ads as long as they aren't tracking me, but the "consent screen" on techcrunch is less "consent" and more "strongarm". PPS: as others are mentioning it seems the whole thing seems to be compliance theater si…

I'm on Firefox Preview for Android and am having no problems with the article. No ads, popups etc. Just pure content.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#23

[flagged]

What exactly makes you think government institutions would do a better job here? I quote: "...one unprotected server at one of the largest military hospitals in the United States exposed the names of military personnel and medical images"

Theoretically, there would/should be a unified system and standards applied. Realistically, it'll probably still be first attempted through vendors with exclusive contracts, which is basically the current system but with extra steps.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#24

An odd line from the article, wherein it states that security researchers don’t blame vendors, but the physicians and hospitals that fail to properly secure the software. I have never, in all my years of working in healthcare, seen a hospital or physicians office directly install and manage PACS. They pay a third-party - usually the vendor - to install, configure, and walk them through it. Maybe a behemoth system lik…

I completely agree. I have friends in the medical field, and they hate their computer systems. One of them spends almost as much time on data entry as he does with his patients. He has to double and sometimes triple enter data. He’s probably going to end up hiring someone to do that full time, which is so obviously a totally broken system.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#25

An odd line from the article, wherein it states that security researchers don’t blame vendors, but the physicians and hospitals that fail to properly secure the software. I have never, in all my years of working in healthcare, seen a hospital or physicians office directly install and manage PACS. They pay a third-party - usually the vendor - to install, configure, and walk them through it. Maybe a behemoth system lik…

I completely agree. I have friends in the medical field, and they hate their computer systems. One of them spends almost as much time on data entry as he does with his patients. He has to double and sometimes triple enter data. He’s probably going to end up hiring someone to do that full time, which is so obviously a totally broken system.

> One of them spends almost as much time on data entry as he does with patients

...then he’s one of the lucky ones! One study found that for every hour a physician spends with a patient, she spends two on processing health records.

https://www.jwatch.org/fw111995/2016/09/06/half-physician-ti...

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#26
Clickbait-y headline that they forget to mention hospitals as well. Yes doctors should be more responsive and responsible. But they're (only) doctors.

Hospitals on the other have have staff dedicated to technology and such infrastructure.

Dr X being unaware of the implications is understandable. Perhaps not forgivable but certainly no surprise. But hospitals? They have no excuse.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#27

Clickbait-y headline that they forget to mention hospitals as well. Yes doctors should be more responsive and responsible. But they're (only) doctors. Hospitals on the other have have staff dedicated to technology and such infrastructure. Dr X being unaware of the implications is understandable. Perhaps not forgivable but certainly no surprise. But hospitals? They have no excuse.

I work in health, and I sometimes have to interact with the federal database of doctors. It's amazing the things you see in there.

There are doctors who don't know their own addresses. Can't spell the name of their town. Don't know their ZIP Code. Don't know the difference between a mailing address and a physical address. Don't keep their information current. Or sometimes don't even know what town they're in, putting a neighborhood or region on federal paperwork because "everybody knows where that is."

We assume that because doctors are smart at medicine, they should also be smart at computers. They're not. Just like my commercial airline pilot neighbor is great at flying transcontinental jumbo jets, but every few days has to shout across the street at me to ask if today's the day to put out the trash bins.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly makes you think government institutions would do a better job here? I quote: "...one unprotected server at one of the largest military hospitals in the United States exposed the names of military personnel and medical images"

Theoretically, there would/should be a unified system and standards applied. Realistically, it'll probably still be first attempted through vendors with exclusive contracts, which is basically the current system but with extra steps.

Theoretically, there would/should be a unified system and standards applied.

So, a nice convenient one stop shop for hackers.

I'd rather a thief had to break into a thousand homes than one great big home.

Re: A billion medical images are exposed online

#29

An odd line from the article, wherein it states that security researchers don’t blame vendors, but the physicians and hospitals that fail to properly secure the software. I have never, in all my years of working in healthcare, seen a hospital or physicians office directly install and manage PACS. They pay a third-party - usually the vendor - to install, configure, and walk them through it. Maybe a behemoth system lik…

This was my immediate thought at the headline, doctors-who-what-now?

This feels informed from the technology side, and profoundly ignorant of how health care IT actually works (especially in the United States).

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