Is your copy machine a HIPAA risk? And, teens teased less about brackets

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Does your office copier pose a security risk? Since 2002, digital copiers have been designed to retain in memory an image of everything they copy, scan, and e-mail.

In a typical healthcare practice, this means that items that are routinely copied or scanned -- such as driver's licenses, health insurance ID cards, medical records, and personal checks -- are actually creating a repository of confidential patient information that could get into the wrong hands.

Healthcare providers are taking a closer look at copier-related HIPAA privacy issues following recent TV coverage of confidential data breaches. Click here or visit the Practice Management Community to read how you can protect your patients and practice from similar situations.

Over in the Cosmetics Community, some good news for teens and orthodontists alike: U.K. researchers have found that adolescents do not make social judgments about their peers based solely on the wearing of a fixed orthodontic appliance. Rather, many other factors come into play. Read more.

And in the latest Ask Marty, Dr. Martin Jablow explains the difference between open and closed CAD/CAM architectures and the pros and cons of each.