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HEALTH

German probe finds millions of medical records freely available online

Millions of records belonging to patients worldwide, including X-Rays, mammograms and MRI scans, were long freely accessible online without basic security measures, German authorities said Tuesday after a media investigation.

German probe finds millions of medical records freely available online
Millions of patients records were found to be freely accessible online. Photo: DPA

ProPublica and Bavarian public television BR reported that some 16 million records were available “unprotected on the internet and available to anyone with basic computer expertise”, protected by neither a password nor encryption.

It is unclear how much of the data has now been safely sealed away by the various hospitals and other health care providers affected in dozens of countries.

“Several thousand patient records were accessible,” confirmed Germany's Federal Office for IT Security (BSI), referring only to some 13,000 of the country's citizens affected.

“The patient data could be accessed as the simplest IT security measures, like access control using usernames and passwords, or encryption, were not implemented.”

However, the government agency “has no information that patient data were in fact copied for criminal purposes.”

As well as scan and radiology data, patients' names, birth dates and social security numbers were freely readable.

BR and ProPublica reported at least 187 servers in the US and five in Germany were among the vulnerable computers, although there were similar security gaps in almost 50 countries including Brazil, Turkey and India.

The BSI said it had informed “partner organisations” in 46 countries about the problem.

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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