At Walgreens and CVS, a push to collect customer health data by dangling discounts | STAT
Pharmacies are enticing customers to give up more of their personal health information by offering store discounts or conveniences like free phone charging in exchange for customers' health readings or location data, STAT News reports. That's troubling privacy advocates, who warn that people may not realize how valuable that sensitive information is, or how it may eventually be used.
Ransomware is coming to medical devices | Motherboard
A new report on cybersecurity trends from Forrester Research predicts next year hackers will escalate beyond breaches to attacking medical devices with ransomware, malware that can lock out physicians or patients until the hacker is paid.
States lead effort to let pharmacists prescribe birth control | New York Times
New laws in California and Oregon will allow pharmacists to dispense hormonal birth control to women without a doctor's prescription, and other Western states may follow suit, the New York Times reports. The laws are an attempt by states to make birth control more accessible and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.
Experts propose changes to how infections diseases are handled | Wall Street Journal
The world's delayed response to the West African Ebola outbreak revealed "deep inadequacies" in the international organizations responsible for monitoring and addressing infectious disease threats, and a number of reforms are needed before another pandemic arises, say a panel of health experts in the journal Lancet.
