Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care is managed out of UVM (the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, to give its' full name). All the study data are stored on UVM data systems behind UVM firewalls and are accessible only by research staff with the appropriate passwords and training. In the five years we have been operating, we have never had a data breach or unintentional release of subject data. Likewise, I have been managing research data at UVM for 16 years before that without an issue.
Unfortunately, the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC, a separate organization with totally separate computer systems) did suffer a breach last week. As far as I know at this time, no patient data were lost, but the Medical Center's computers have been off line, causing no end of confusion and delay for the patients, staff and providers who work in the hospital or UVMMC clinics. This event made national news and may have prompted some IBHPC research subjects to worry about the security of their private data.
Although the two institutions have similar names, the computer woes at UVMMC have not affected our research at UVM. No UVMMC patients are in the study and no UVMMC computers are used. Our data are all safe and secure, just where they should be, with no unauthorized access (we looked!). If you or your colleagues or patients are at all worried, please know that the issues they may have heard about have nothing to do with IBHPC and every thing is running as planned. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.
As always, many thanks for your support and good work,
Ben Littenberg
Principal Investigator
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