Article 1 – An ethics checklist for digital health research in
psychiatry: Viewpoint
In the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, the application of mobile
health information technologies such as applications is undergoing
considerable change. It has led to changes in the regulatory
dimensions as well. As emerging technologies are being integrated
into the healthcare landscape, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
Machine Learning (MI), new state privacy laws are emerging as well.
In the international context, European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a well-known law that has been
established to address the issue of the improper disclosure of health
information. The poor privacy and security of sensitive patient health
information can violate the fundamental rights of patients. It can
increase the vulnerability of patients in the vast cyber domain since
unauthorized individuals can easily access and manipulate sensitive
medical records. In the highly dynamic times, the privacy and
confidentiality of patients are of utmost importance in clinician and
research settings so that the sensitive data of patients can be handled
in a responsible manner by taking into account the appropriate legal
and ethical aspects (Shen et al., 2022).
Article 2 – Spokane Regional Health District Announces Second
Phishing attack in 3 Months
The article that has been identified revolves around a recent
cybersecurity breach incident that took place in the Spokane Regional
Health District (SRHD) of Washington. Confidential patient data was
compromised due to a phishing attack that took place after an
employee responded to a phishing email. According to the
investigation that was carried out, patient data got compromised
because of a compromised email account. Due to the inability of the
employee to identify the malicious nature of the email, his credentials
got disclosed to unauthorized parties, and they were able to access
sensitive patient health information. As per SRHD, the email account
that was compromised contained the protected health information of
1260 patients. Even though the code of ethics was in place, due to
the negligence of the staff, sensitive information such as names,
names of the provider hospital, birthdate, etc., were revealed
(Spokane Regional Health District announces second phishing attack
in 3 months. HIPAA Journal, 2022).
Such a security breach issue could have been averted by making the
strategic use of audit trials. Such trials can help in the identification
and detection of security violations and issues pertaining to
performance. It can act as a vital tool for strengthening security and
compliance in the healthcare context by helping in identifying and
taking timely action relating to potential online fraud or breach
(Duncan & Whittington, 2016).
References
Duncan, B., & Whittington, M. (2016). Cloud cyber-security:
Empowering the audit trail. International Journal on Advances in
Security Volume 9, Number 3 & 4, 2016.
Shen, F. X., Silverman, B. C., Monette, P., Kimble, S., Rauch, S. L., &
Baker, J. T. (2022). An Ethics Checklist for Digital Health Research in
Psychiatry. Journal of medical Internet research, 24(2), e31146.
Spokane Regional Health District announces second phishing attack in 3
months. HIPAA Journal. (2022, April 1). Retrieved June 1, 2022, from
https://www.hipaajournal.com/spokane-regional-health-district-
announces-second-phishing-attack-in-3-months/
