Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Era Of Health Care Hacks, Some Worry Medical Devices Are Too Vulnerable To Attack
Regulators and medical-device-makers are bracing for an expected barrage of hacking attacks even as legal and technical uncertainties leave them in uncharted territory. Tens of millions of electronic health records have been compromised in recent years, a number that is growing and, some say, underreported. (Harper, 4/10)
About a year and a half ago, Robin Collier and her husband, Wayne, were like millions of other Americans: overweight and living with Type 2 diabetes. Despite multiple diets, the couple could not seem to lose much weight. Then Ms. Collier鈥檚 doctor told her she was going to need daily insulin shots to control her diabetes. That was the motivation she needed. 鈥淚 made up my mind right then and there,鈥 said Ms. Collier, 62, an administrator at an accounting firm in Lafayette, Ind. 鈥淚 said to myself, 鈥業鈥檓 not going on insulin. I鈥檓 too young to have this disease.鈥欌 (O'Connor, 4/11)
Using that nifty fitness monitor to keep track of your heart rate while you exercise? If you exercise while remaining still, it may work pretty well. If you move while exercising, not so much. A study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine put four wearable fitness trackers to the test 鈥 both against one another and against the kind of electrocardiography monitor you鈥檇 probably encounter while taking a stress test in an doctor鈥檚 office. (Healy, 4/10)
When tested alongside electrocardiograph (ECG) technology, devices from Fitbit and Mio performed reasonably well at measuring resting and active heart rates, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "It's very exciting because we've had so much advance in technology during such a short period," lead researcher Lisa Cadmus-Bertram said. "These trackers are such an enormous improvement over what we used to have." (Jimison, 4/11)