Guy with a good voice......and A LOT of time on his hands

For those who haven't seen it, Ross Martin's video "An Interoperetta in in Three Acts" is amusing (see below). Though I've got to say, if I had that kind of musical talent, I definitely would not be singing about health IT.....

Darn, I'm a breach victim......

I just got the following email.

Important Message from Pentagon Federal Credit Union
Ref. Card Number
Ending In: XXXX

Dear Member,
Visa Fraud Control has recently notified us that your Pentagon Federal Credit Union Visa credit card account number, name, expiration date, and CVV (a three-digit verification value on the magnetic stripe of the plastic) may have been compromised in a processor level breach at Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. is one of the nation's largest payment processors delivering credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payments solutions. Heartland has dedicated a website, www.2008breach.com to provide additional information on the breach.

Information pertaining to your other Pentagon Federal Credit Union account(s) has not been associated with this event or compromised in any way. The compromise did not occur at Pentagon Federal Credit Union nor did it involve any of our systems. All of your Pentagon Federal Credit Union account information remains absolutely secure.

We continue to take all necessary precautions to safeguard and monitor your Pentagon Federal Credit Union accounts to protect against unauthorized activity. We have provided a series of frequently asked questions below that provide additional details and tips.

Please review them and if you would like to receive a new card with a new account number, please use the instructions provided below. You may reach us toll free at 800-247-5626 or online at PenFed.org.

If you have recently closed the referenced card, please disregard this correspondence. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We appreciate the continued trust you have placed in Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Thank you for remaining a valued member.

Sincerely,
Vincent Gay
Director, Security
Pentagon Federal Credit Union

In this simple email we see the complexity of breach notification. Let me say for the record that I love PFCU -- I've been a member of PFCU for many years and will continue to be for many more.

On the negative side of this notification is the ambiguity. My information "may have been compromised" -- not sure if it actually was, so I'm not sure what the actual risk is. They're fulfilling a legal and/or ethical obligation to tell me the nature of the breach, but are they really helping me by telling me that it's a "processor level breach", without further explanation? And how am I as a consumer supposed to assess my level of exposure? Does this mean that there was an actual intrusion of Heartland's environment, or that they discovered a security hole that could have been entered without their knowledge but they really have no idea whether it was.

On the positive side, I'm alerted, so I myself can keep my eyes open for suspicious activity.

This notification was for a relatively simple incident in a disciplined corporate setting, and it still raises more questions than it answers. Makes me wonder about how we're going to strike the right balance as we move to stricter breach notification regimes in health care.....

I'm speechless...

"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation,
we understand that greatness is never a given.
It must be earned."

The National eHealth Collaborative

The AHIC successor organization is now the National eHealth Collaborative. As a friend reminded me, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We at the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative thus couldn't be more flattered. And we'll get over the name thing. Really. We will.

In all seriousness, congratulations to NeHC -- we wish you every success!

Spreading our wings

We are proud to be chosen by Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center to provide project management and practice consulting services to their EHR deployment project. We're working closely with BIDMC's excellent staff and with eClinicalWorks and Concordant, who were also chosen for the project and who we know very well from the MAeHC project.

This is the first commercial project undertaken by MAeHC. As we near the end of our seed funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, we are pursuing a 'public service' strategy and a 'commercial' strategy. The public service strategy is to get collaboratively provided resources to build on the successess and lessons of the pilot projects and launch Phase 1 of a statewide rollout. The 'commercial' strategy is to pursue paying customers inside and outside of the Commonwealth who have needs that we have the skills and interest to address. These strategies are complementary -- the lessons we learn from clinical leaders such as BIDMC will make us even more seasoned for the challenges of a statewide rollout. In return, if we can get any organization to avoid our mistakes and replicate our successes, our mission will be forwarded.

Uh-oh....

I hope my Board doesn't read Computerworld:
"Whole Foods to restrict online postings by execs after CEO brouhaha"