Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1472295
12 SPINE 4 recent spine center data breaches: Are physician groups easier targets? By Alan Condon F our physician-owned spine practices reported cyber- attacks this year as the number of healthcare data breaches continues to rise because of the increased threat posed by the Russian government, according to the American Hospital Association. Christiana Spine Center in Newark, Del., reported a ran- somware attack in May, with Jacksonville, Fla.-based Jax Spine and Pain Centers, Oradell-based New Jersey Brain and Spine and Boca Raton-based IRise Florida Spine and Joint Institute experiencing similar threats earlier this year. Hackers have traditionally targeted large hospitals and health systems but may see smaller physician practices with less resources as softer targets, according to Ernest Braxton, MD, a neurosurgeon at Vail-Summit Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery in Vail, Colo. Dr. Braxton described healthcare cyberattacks as "a cat- and-mouse game with extremely high stakes," and shared what security methods his practice is implementing to pro- tect patient information, including names, addresses, So- cial Security numbers and financial and health information. "We are in the process of having our entire organization enrolled in security awareness training, just like military healthcare workers do, with simulated attacks and cyber- strength knowledge assessments," Dr. Braxton said. "Edu- cation and vigilance are strategies and ideologies focused on identifying and alerting our IT department of malicious emails infiltrating our system. By training staff to be pro- active, we can reduce the odds of threats accessing our system with ransomware attacks." Other defense measures physician groups should con- sider include implementing two-factor authentication to access networks, staff training on the increased risk of re- ceiving malware-laden phishing emails and checking the redundancy, resiliency and security of networks and data backups. "This is just senseless," Mr. Gilbert said. "It's just greed. … That's such a huge betrayal. We're taught to trust our doctors, and we should be able to trust [them]." n 30K 'unnecessary' spine surgeries performed in 1st year of pandemic: study By Alan Condon H ospitals performed more than 100,000 "unnecessary" procedures on older Americans in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, including 30,094 spine surgeries, according to a May analysis published by the Lown Institute. "You couldn't go into your local coffee shop, but hospitals brought people in for all kinds of unnecessary procedures," Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said in a May 17 news release. "e fact that a pan- demic barely slowed things down shows just how deeply entrenched overuse is in Ameri- can healthcare." e healthcare think tank analyzed data from 1.3 million Medicare claims from Jan- uary through December 2020 to determine the volume of eight procedures performed in American hospitals. Procedures and overuse criteria were based on the nonprof- it's research on measurement of low-value care at hospitals. e Lown Institute identified 106,474 unnec- essary procedures performed from March to December 2020: 1. Stents for stable coronary disease: 45,176 2. Vertebroplasty for osteoporosis: 16,553 3. Hysterectomy for benign disease: 14,455 4. Spinal fusion for back pain: 13,541 5. Inferior vena cava filter: 9,595 6. Carotid endarterectomy: 3,667 7. Renal stent: 1,891 8. Knee arthroscopy: 1,596 n "By training staff to be proactive, we can reduce the odds of threats accessing our system with ransomware attacks." - Ernest Braxton, MD. Vail-Summit Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery