Steven Mussey is an internal medicine physician.

It’s time to teach the elderly about computer safety

Physician
May 9, 2019

Medicare wants doctors to get patients on their computers. Doctors are required to set up computer portals to communicate with patients. These portals use two-factor identification and presume substantial computer literacy from patients in their late 70s or 80s.

Yet, there are limits. For many geriatric patients, a cell phone means a feature phone with gigantic numbers. If they have a computer, it …

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It’s time to teach the elderly about computer safety

Our terrifying chickenpox problem

Conditions and Diseases
May 6, 2019

A Kentucky judge rejected the claims made by a teenager who sued his local health department for temporarily barring students at his school who aren’t immune against chickenpox from attending classes and participating in extracurricular activities.

This article prompted a little thought experiment.

Chickenpox used to be a routine childhood illness.  For a couple of weeks, kids who contracted the illness were very contagious and experienced discomfort.

Death was rare, …

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Our terrifying chickenpox problem

My hospital hacked my computer

Health Technology
November 8, 2017

Hospital email is supposed to be secure. This means that when you get an email with possible sensitive information, you receive a link to connect to a secure email product, requiring passwords, sign-ins and maybe even a bit of personal information.

Being what they are, hospitals tend to swap software products and we find some new “secure solution” that hits us, urging us to give email, make a password and possibly …

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My hospital hacked my computer