Lubbock Cardiology Clinic in Lubbock, Texas posted an online notification of a data breach that affected 1,400 patient medical records and patient demographics (names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers). The breach was caused when an unauthorized individual accessed LCC’s EHR (electronic health record) system between December 15, 2013 to January 30, 2014.

When accessed, the records were viewed, copied, downloaded and exported without

the approval of the practice.

In the statement, posted under “Unauthorized access to medical records” here, the clinic spokesperson stated that that they “are vigorously seeking answers and recovery of this information.”

Reading between the lines, this could be a situation where a physician employee took patient records with the intent to recruit these patients to a new medical practice.

This is not the first time that cardiology in Lubbock, TX has made national news.  Some years ago, Lubbock cardiologists drew the attention of a Wall Street Journal expose.  A reprint of this article is available here.  This article cited Lubbock as the “angioplasty capital of the world” because at the time Lubbock had the highest per-capita rate of angioplasty in the world.  However, within a few years, another Texas city, McAllen, had taken this crown as revealed by Atul Gawande in this New Yorker article.

It is only speculation, but perhaps this breach is an attempt by the physicians in Lubbock to regain their title. 🙂

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