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Wednesday, August 17, 2005The scanner would send the images via Bluetooth - which swaps data via short-wave radio - to a computer onboard the ambulance to allow paramedics to diagnose the cause of the stroke, or send it to consultants at the hospital if they are unable to identify it. Treatment for strokes varies depending on whether it is caused by a bleed in the brain or a blood clot in the carotid artery which leads to the brain. Clot-busting drugs need to be administered within three hours of an attack, but they can make the damage worse if the stroke has been caused by a bleed. Stroke patients have to wait until they arrive at hospital for a CT or MRI scan to diagnose the cause, but doctors say valuable time can be lost while this is done. Can it be encrypted to protect patient privacy? UPDATE: From a reader: Short answer: Yes it can be encrypted. I don't know whether they will encrypt. The piece of paper that comes out of the printer is a much higher privacy loss risk. In terms of threat analysis I wouldn't give it a high priority. Bluetooth signals have trouble going through the metal walls of an ambulance. Bluetooth itself has mediocre security. That means anyone who deliberately targets a system will succeed, and rather quickly. But anyone just idly listening or using a neighboring Bluetooth system will not pick up a signal by accident. If someone is specifically targetted there are lots of weak points in the healthcare system. I would put this one pretty far down the list of things to fix. posted by Sydney on 8/17/2005 08:35:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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