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While the number of overall data breaches is down, incidents involving 100 million or more records continue to be a concern, a new report found.

Nine councils in the UK have been awarded a share of up £700,000 to design and deploy digital innovations for social care through a project led by the Local Government Association (LGA), commissioned by NHS Digital. In June, it was announced that twelve local authorities would receive £20,000 each to identify how digital technology could help address local challenges and improve services, part of a "discovery" funding phase, and initial reviews have now been published by the LGA. “All of this year’s cohort have shown true innovation which made it extremely difficult to decide who to fund for implementation,” said Kate Allsop, Digital Lead on the LGA Community and Wellbeing Board. “The discovery phase has enabled a detailed study of user needs to determine the scope of some really interesting projects.” A pilot in Wirral will now see the council provide biometric wearable devices to people with autism and complex learning disabilities with a view to analyse the data collected to spot anxiety triggers. In London, Havering Council is looking to design an app for social care workers to streamline recruitment processes and ensure information such as employment history or training can be securely shared. The other seven projects will be led by Bracknell Forest Council, Isle of Wight Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Shropshire Council, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, and Sunderland City Council. Last week, NHS Digital announced that the Care Provider Alliance would receive £784,000 to create a new service that would offer digital support for the care provider sector, looking to drive uptake of existing resources.  Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

Myongji Hospital, which was established in 1987 in South Korea, has recently signed an agreement with BICube, an IT company based in Korea to co-develop a blockchain-based medical information exchange system. According to the official press release by the hospital, the main purpose of the agreement is to “build a hybrid cloud that combines public and private clouds, and to secure the safety of online medical information exchange system by combining blockchain technology in the process of exchanging medical data through the cloud.” Although blockchain technologies are commonly associated with the virtual currency-based technologies, the hospital said that this project will use medical data and store new data, as well as prevent the data from being tampered. The two parties plan to use to use a virtual private network (VPN) solution to build a security system which includes features such as physical authentication and anti-piracy, anti-tampering, data protection through device authentication, remote verification, and signature codes. Webinar: IEEE: Bringing Together Blockchain, Healthcare and Emerging Technology With the patient’s agreement to release their medical information, the hospital will also provide its data exchange service through the inter-hospital blockchain to other hospitals online. During the information exchange process, the hybrid cloud plays the role of data relay, communicating between the patient and the hospital, and takes charge of various payments but does not store any medical information. Both parties plan to commercialise the blockchain-based service by 2019. Myongji Hospital Director Kim Hyung-soo said, “When a blockchain-based medical information exchange system is commercialised, it can prevent unnecessary administrative procedures as well as ensuring safety.” Earlier in June this year, Myongji Hospital became the first hospital in South Korea to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Launched in 2011, the Mayo Clinic Care Network consists of more than 40 member organisations in the U.S., China, Mexico, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Informatics group said the blurring lines between consumer and medical information systems demands privacy policies relevant to both sides.

New service comes shortly after the software giant aligned with Amazon, IBM, Google, Oracle and Salesforce to remove interoperability barriers.

With large integrated delivery networks scooping up physician practices and pressuring vendors to integrate different pieces of infrastructure, expect changes coming before too long.

HHS said it is looking to remove regulatory barriers to health information sharing and the plan just took a first step.

New research from HIMSS Analytics finds widespread interest in patient-generated data and interoperability, along with a need for tech talent and bigger cybersecurity budgets.

At a two-day event to learn about the ethics and consumer implications of artificial intelligence, an ONC official and tech developer offered the healthcare perspective.

The four Northern Region district health boards (DHBs) in New Zealand have started rolling out a cloud-based telehealth service. Northland, Waitemata, Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs have developed the new service in close collaboration with their clinical teams. The technology is provided by Zoom Video Communications as a safe, secure and unified video, audio, content sharing and chat platform to help facilitate virtual patient care workflows, remote specialist visits, population health management and education and care coordination. Counties Manukau health director of hospital services and regional telehealth programme sponsor Phillip Balmer says telehealth is a vital cog in the DHBs’ goal of having a more joined-up region with improved access to healthcare and more equity. “The new service will help us realise our aim of seeing a more integrated health system in the Northern Region over the next decade,” Balmer says. Webinar: Fall Prevention and Fire Departments: Telehealth from Setup to Application   “Our vision is that telehealth, via Zoom, will be widely available for real-time consultations between hospital-based clinicians, primary care and community clinicians, and between patients and their team of care providers, whether in a hospital or community setting.” In July, a one-year-old patient from Kaikohe with severe respiratory distress was taken to the Bay of Islands Hospital in Kawakawa by ambulance with the attending GP. Once there, using the new regional telehealth service, the patient was assessed by Whangarei Hospital’s intensive care unit paediatrician and clinical flight team for a possible helicopter transfer. The teams from the different sites were able to stabilise the patient, with real-time coordination via telehealth contributing to the young patient having a successful outcome. This also meant that the ICU team was able to stand down the helicopter transfer, saving costs and keeping it available for other potential calls. Hospital and community-based clinical teams have also started using the new service’s secure instant messaging feature, which is improving their clinical and administrative communication. The Northern DHBs’ shared IT service provider, healthAlliance, has supported the clinically led implementation of telehealth in partnership with Zoom’s New Zealand reseller, Connect NZ. healthAlliance chief clinical information officer Karl Cole says, “telehealth is convenient and potentially life-saving, particularly for people who live in remote locations or who are unable to reach health services”. According to the NZ Telehealth Resource Centre website, the Zoom link to Bay of Islands Hospital is a predecessor to a Mobile Clinical Cart, which is being developed by the DHB Telehealth and Mobility team in collaboration with Zoom, the University of Queensland and HealthAlliance. The Zoom link is also available in the newly launched Accident & Medical Department and hospital wards as part of the Bay of Islands Hospital expansion, which was officially complete in September 2018. A version of this article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.