Livonia, Michigan-based Mendelson Kornblum Orthopedic and Spine Specialists has notified its patients of a data breach comprising its patient health information.
Michigan Orthopedic Practice Reports Data Breach
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A data breach occurs when confidential or protected information is exposed. The notice reports that on January 5, 2021, the orthopedic practice “became aware that certain limited health information residing on one of its servers was and had been for an unknown period of time vulnerable to viewing by unauthorized third parties.” When the orthopedic practice became aware of the incident it was able to close the vulnerability on the applicable server and update its existing security processes.
According to the notice, the potentially viewable information included “patient name, medical record number, date of birth, sex, and certain information regarding medical images, including the date and time the image was taken, the image number, and the name of the body part that was imaged.”
The notice specified that the potentially viewable information did not include “any medical images themselves, other diagnosis or treatment information, health insurance information, social security numbers, credit or debit card numbers, or financial account information.”
The number of reported healthcare data breaches continues to grow. An article by the HIPAA Journal found that between 2009 and 2020, 3,705 healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. Those breaches exposed 268,189,693 healthcare records.
In 2021, 119 data breach incidences affecting 500 or more people have been reported to HHS. These incidences have affected more than 9,223,453 individuals. Among those reported this year, six were from Michigan.
Herbert Mendelson, M.D. founded Mendelson Kornblum in 1963 as a general orthopedic practice. The practice has grown significantly over the years and created Synergy Health Partners in 2019 to drive its expansion. It now employs 20 physicians and has numerous locations in Michigan including ambulatory surgery centers, orthopedic and spine offices, pain management clinics, and physical therapy facilities.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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