Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1203108
34 CIO / HEALTH IT Banner Health agrees to pay $6M to settle data breach lawsuit By Mackenzie Garrity P hoenix-based Banner Health agreed to pay $6 million to patients involved in a class-action lawsuit over a 2016 data breach, according to BankInfoSecurity.com. A federal court approved the preliminary settlement Dec. 5, 2019. The case was a consolidation of 11 class-action lawsuits brought against Banner Health. The $6 million will reimburse approximately 2.9 million individuals for expenses related to the breach. Additionally, Banner Health will implement "extensive information security improvements." The health system plans to incorporate a set of "future business practice commitments," according to docu- ments cited by BankInfoSecurity.com. Banner Health did not return a request for comment from BankInfoSecurity.com. In 2016, an unauthorized third party gained access to Banner Health's payment care processing systems at various food and bev- erage outlets at Banner Health. With the access, the unauthorized third party eventually gained the ability to view patient information. Patient data that may have been exposed included names, credit card numbers, verification codes, health plan information, benefi- ciary information, clinical information, provider names and Social Security numbers. n Hackensack Meridian Health reschedules nonemergency surgeries after 'external technical issues' By Mackenzie Garrity H ackensack (N.J.) Meridian Health was forced to turn to pa- per records Dec. 4, 2019, due to technical issues, according to the Asbury Park Press. "We have been experiencing intermitted IT system interruptions across our network due to external technical issues," the health sys- tem said in a Dec. 4 statement to Asbury Park Press. "Systems are coming back on-line at this time." The technical problems caused Hackensack Meridian Health to reschedule a limited number of nonemergency procedures. Hackensack Meridian Health said it does not believe patient data was affected. "We are working diligently to remedy the situation and expect these systems to be operational very soon," Hackensack Meridian Health said. "In the meantime, we are using manual patient records so there is no impact on care." n Rushing unregulated AI into healthcare raises patient risks: 'I don't think we want to fail fast' By Andrea Park N ot only do many artificial intelligence-enabled healthcare products and services fail to live up to marketing claims, but a significant number should not be classified as AI at all and furthermore pose great dangers to users, according to a report from Kaiser Health News and Scientific American. e massive potential of AI to transform healthcare by speeding diagnosis, developing highly personalized treat- ments and cutting costs may have blinded regulators, pro- viders and patients to the equally massive dangers asso- ciated with the technology, per the report. e sector has also been heavily influenced by the tech industry's "move fast and break things" mantra, to its detriment. Among major and widespread challenges still facing AI in healthcare are gender and racial biases in algo- rithms, a lack of consistency in the technology's out- comes across hospitals and health systems, and the "black box" quality of AI that prevents users from knowing exactly how an algorithm reached its con- clusion, Mildred Cho, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford (Calif.) University's Center for Biomedical Ethics, told KHN and Scientific American. Additionally, as noted by Eric Topol, MD, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational In- stitute, only one medical AI system has undergone randomized clinical testing thus far, and no AI prod- ucts currently sold in the U.S. have been verified by randomized clinical trials. "Almost none of the [AI] stuff marketed to patients really works," Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, professor of medical ethics and health policy at Philadelphia-based Universi- ty of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, told the news outlets. To avoid the potentially disastrous consequences of inef- fective AI, the FDA will need to implement more rigorous standards for testing the technology and verifying claims. Additionally, those developing AI for use in healthcare will need to take a more cautious approach to commer- cializing their offerings. "If 'failing fast' means a whole bunch of people will die, I don't think we want to fail fast," said Oren Etzioni, PhD, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI. "Nobody is going to be happy, including investors, if people die or are severely hurt." n