Data breaches and patient privacy rights were some of the most popular health-care IT topics in 2011, and that's unlikely to change in 2012. Below we review some related topics to help ensure that you stay clear of potential hurdles in the coming year.

Medical identity theft resulting from data breaches are causing patients much distress, emotionally and financially—and this often results in patients switching providers. That can hurt health care providers financially, since the average lifetime value of one patient is more than $113,000, according to a study by Ponemon.

Additionally, security and privacy breaches can lead to class-action lawsuits, which will increase in 2012, according to Kirk Nahra, a partner at the law firm Wiley Rein LLP. This was certainly the case in 2011, and shouldn't change in 2012. The result will inevitably be increased costs for affected health care providers.

That will likely lead to two major changes in the industry. First, security and privacy training will become paramount. Although many health care providers already have related procedures in place, in many cases their staff members ignore them. Since most breaches are caused by human error, training will likely become more common.

Additionally, health care providers will likely utilize cyber liability insurance. Cyber Data Risk Managers has said this will be particularly true as health care providers continue to implement their electronic medical records (EMRs), as breaches can be both costly and damaging to the organization’s reputation, as noted above.

Desktop Virtualization is starting to gain the attention of more and more businesses with its promise of simplifying IT management, strengthening IT security, and ultimately gaining new efficiencies and cost savings in the business. Read on to find out how.

There is growing interest in Desktop Virtualization with its promise of improved manageability, security and efficiency for the business. Simply put, Desktop Virtualization is new technology that separates the system software such as the operating system and applications from the underlying hardware.

Desktop virtualization allows the hardware, like a laptop or a server, to run multiple operating systems. Imagine having your Mac running Microsoft Windows and Office, or your Dell running OS X and GarageBand for example. To stretch the concept even further, operating systems and applications can be housed on remote machines – such as a server farm in Texas – which you access via the web. The applications are not resident on your computer at all.

Desktop virtualization shifts the burden of managing the system software from you or your in-house IT teams to someone else—people who can do a better job managing and updating your Windows and Office software than you can. If you have a fairly large organization managing a large number of machines, centralizing support allows the organization to gain from economies of scale—ie less people to manage more machines at less cost. Leveraging the computing power of server farms with faster machines also allows employees to get more value out of aging desktops and laptops.

Enabling anytime, anywhere access to applications and data, Desktop Virtualization connects your employees to the tools they need no matter where they are. As organizations support more and more remote employees, using desktop virtualization technology gives them access to their Windows desktop anywhere in the world, at any time, on any device.

Are you supporting remote workers or is your hardware slowing down your employees? Let's talk about Desktop Virtualization and how you can try it for your organization today.

The big difference between Android and the iOS is the fact that, on an Android device, you can play Flash videos. There are times however when this seeming advantage can be a disadvantage as Flash (such as Flash ads) can slow down your browsing experience or even crash your browser. There is a solution.

You can turn off Flash if you choose to. Simply go to your Browser's Settings by pressing on the Menu/Options button, then go to Advanced and change 'Enable plug-ins' setting from "Always on" to "On demand." Flash applications will now appear as an arrow that you must touch to start.

There are times when you may want to capture what is currently being shown on your iPad's screen. That’s easy to do on an iPad.

Simply press the Home button and then the Sleep/Wake button simultaneously. When you hear a click, the screenshot has been taken. You can then go to the photos gallery to see all of your captured screenshots.

For those of you using Google Mail or Gmail, chances are you're familiar with the "stars" feature, which serves as a visual reminder to follow up on certain messages or mark their importance. You may not know, though, that you can use different types of stars. To do so, click on the Gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen, click Mail Settings, and on the General tab look for the Stars section.

You will see many different types of stars that you can cycle through. Drag the stars between the lists that you want to use and in the order you prefer. Another neat trick is to use the name of the star to filter messages. Simply hover over the star to learn its name (i.e., "red-bang"), then use the "has" prefix to filter by star name. For example, typing "has:red-bang" in your search box will show all messages with that star name.

Did you know you can have the activity feeds/social stream or live updates from your favorite social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn appear in the latest version of Windows Live Messenger? Simply sign in to your Live Messenger account, select Add/Manager Services at the bottom right area of the application, and then choose a service you wish to integrate to (i.e., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn).

The application will ask you to sign in to the chosen service and give permission to integrate. After you have given permission, you will see updates from and be able to post to that social network in Live Messenger.

Headaches using printers usually don't have anything to do with hacking, but now they do. Recent research done by experts from Columbia University have discovered a flaw in many printer systems that are connected to the Internet – a flaw that allows easy entry by hackers into the networks printers serve.

When it comes to printers, we usually think about ink, paper jams and minor irritations – but certainly NOT getting hacked. But recent research suggests that printers can be used by hackers to infiltrate computer systems.

According to researchers at Columbia University, printers that are connected to the are the weakest (and almost always unnoticed) link that can compromise an otherwise secure system. Details are emerging, as the research was done under government and corporate grants. The Federal Bureau of Investigation got the first look at the research results, followed by people from Hewlett-Packard. What is clear is that this new research reveals that printers CAN be used by hackers or online thieves not only to infiltrate networks, but also to steal personal information and even identities.

The security flaw involves the printer software used to run "embedded systems" which enables both advanced functions and connects the printer directly the Internet. Alarmingly, researchers were able to hack into a printer, and give it instructions to continuously heat up the part of the device that dried the ink after it’s applied to the paper. The resulting heat caused the paper to turn brown and smoke.

The implications of this type of security flaw are concerning, but can be addressed properly and promptly with the right planning. HP is looking into the study for their own line of printers and business owners should also take precautionary steps to protect already installed devices on their networks.

If you want to know more about how you can ensure that your systems are secure, give us a call so we can sit down with you and discuss a security blueprint that meets your specific needs.

Microsoft recently posted a video on its website that is the latest in a series from Microsoft offering a view into where technology is headed in the future through product development at Microsoft. The video offers a fascinating and impressive glimpse into the future of work and productivity that may occur in less than a decade.

The video from Microsoft gives us a glimpse into a day in the life of Ayla, a travelling executive, her daughter Shannon, at home with her Dad, and Qin, Ayla's colleague. The video is the latest in a series from the Microsoft Office team. You can see past videos here, or view a behind the scenes video from Kurt DelBane, Microsoft Office Business Division President, who explains the technological concepts behind the video, such as collaborative technologies, data visualization tools, mobile technologies, and cloud computing.

Interested in finding out more? Check out the actual place where this technology is developed by Microsoft demonstrating some of the video's concepts in real life.

An electronic medical record (EMR) implementation isn't just about replacing paper charts with digital technology. EMRs also provide a perfect opportunity to review and improve your workflows. The result can be increased efficiencies—which means decreased costs.

Your medical practice has probably been doing things the same way for a long time. Maybe you think you do things well, and most likely you actually do. Most practices, however, have not recently reviewed and optimized processes to the extent possible. Few have standardized procedures in writing, for example.

Implementing an EMR won't automatically make these improvements. In fact, most people think EMRs solve problems, but they actually amplify problems that already exist in a practice.

Because of this, adopting an EMR presents a good opportunity for you to make your practice more efficient by reviewing processes and optimizing your own workflows. In fact, you may find that with little effort you are able to identify new efficiencies that could save time and money.

Be patient, however. The adoption of technology is an iterative process. In other words, while EMRs are full of functions that will bring efficiency to your practice if implemented correctly, this won't happen overnight. Give it some time. Typically, health care groups are in the learning and adoption phase of their transition for several months. You should see results after that.

If you own an Android phone, you can use it as a substitute for an external drive or a USB key. You can load files into your phone simply by plugging it in to a PC with a USB cable, then tapping on “Mount” when you are prompted by the system.

This mounts the internal storage of the device as an external drive relative to the PC, and you can easily drag and drop files or create folders on the device as you see fit. Of course, it is recommended you do this on the SDCard that likely came with the device, or one that you buy for your phone.