Health News

Cyberattacks Up; Renaming Schizophrenia; Gardening Benefits

Don’t Wait for a Cyberattack; Know What Coverage You Have Now
Cyberattacks against healthcare have become more prevalent in recent years. In this year alone, almost 200 medical groups have reported cyberattacks that targeted 500 or more of their patient’s medical records to the federal government.

Cybercriminals target electronic health records because they contain social security numbers, dates of birth, medical procedures and results, and sometime billing and financial information. The data are then sold on the dark web to be used for fraud and extortion.

How to protect yourself: Get comprehensive cybersecurity insurance from insurance brokers who are experienced in healthcare cybersecurity policies. Many doctors polled by the Medical Group Management Association say they have coverage through their malpractice insurance carrier.

Beyond insurance: You can also protect your practice by using multifactorial authentication, ensuring quick removal of terminated employee’s login credentials, and allowing automatic system updates.

Does Schizophrenia Need a Name Change?
A growing number of patients and mental health experts are pushing to change the name of schizophrenia.

Evidence suggests that the term schizophrenia has stigma and burden that supports discrimination, shame, and condemnation.

Proposed name change: Alternative names that received support included “altered perception syndrome,” “psychosis spectrum syndrome,” and “neuro-emotional integration disorder.”

Apprehension: Some mental health experts believe a name change won’t do much to help with stigma, could potentially confuse medical professionals, and may cause issues when applying for insurance coverage.

Growing Evidence Gardening Cultivates Mental Health
At a time when physician burnout is at an all-time high, taking up gardening could be beneficial.

New research shows gardening is linked to improved mood and reduced stress, according to small pilot study.

Study details: Participants were randomly assigned to a gardening intervention or an art intervention. Each intervention consisted of 60-minute sessions twice-weekly for 4 weeks.

Findings: Both gardening and artmaking reduced levels on the Perceived Stress Scale and Depression Inventory II questionnaire. Gardening, however, was linked to significant improvement in trait anxiety that was not found in the artmaking group.

Kaitlin Edwards is a staff medical editor based in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter @kaitmedwards. For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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