More and more healthcare professionals are using Apple’s tech as a way to treat illness and disease.
A new hospital cyberattack left patients without care – Keep your records safe

Come with me. Imagine you rush to the emergency room, but after five hours, they tell you to find another hospital. Or you check in at your specialist’s office for a chronic condition, only to find they’ve lost your entire medical history. Both of these scenarios just happened.
Yesterday’s cyberattack on one of the largest health systems in the U.S., Ascension, was bad — really bad. Before you say, “Another data breach? So what, Kim?” know that having your records sold on the dark web is the least of your worries.
Code red
The hack on Ascension sent its 140 hospitals and 40 senior facilities into full-blown chaos. It took down patient record systems and medication prescribing systems, forcing doctors and nurses to rely on paper charts and handwritten records to keep things running.
One patient, Zackery Lopez, checked himself in at an Ascension-run hospital in Southfield, Michigan. He was suffering from internal bleeding and thinking his cancer had returned. Zackery waited a grueling seven hours before a nurse could help him. As he waited, he saw patients checking themselves out.
Keep your health records safe
When hospital systems get hacked, it’s a matter of life and death. And it’s happening more and more often. Keeping physical records sounds old-school, but if digital systems go down, it could save your life.
- Start with a list. Make a list of all your meds, including dosages and names, and keep both digital and physical copies. Store a physical copy in your purse or wallet if you’re currently in treatment or in case of emergency.
I also recommend compiling your full medical records and having a printed copy on hand. If you have an iPhone, you can sync them to your Health app:
Add your health records
- Open the Health app on your iPhone or iPad.
- If you’re on your iPhone, tap the Summary tab, then your profile picture in the upper-right corner. On iPad, tap Profile in the upper-left corner.
- Scroll down to Features > Health Records > Get Started.
- Search for your hospital or network, then tap it. FYI: It’ll ask you to add location services to find hospitals and health networks near you, but you don’t have to enable it to search.
- Under Available to Connect, choose Connect Account. Sign in to your health care provider’s website or app.
- Wait for your records to update. It might take a minute for your information to appear.
- Repeat these steps for each supported provider. Start by going to Features, then tap Add Account.
View your health records
Apple Watch medical revolution
👥 Your body = Their revenue stream: You know that health tracker you’re wearing? The companies behind these trackers and wellness apps are selling your body-centric data to third parties, leading you to have higher insurance premiums, receive more targeted ads or worse. Current laws offer little protection, and you opt in when you agree to use the apps. You might want to pretend to be someone else if you have health issues, just sayin’.
The FTC just banned noncompete clauses, which companies use to keep workers from going to competitors. With the ban, does the FTC expect a decrease in A.) Wages earned, B.) Startups founded, C.) Patents filed, or D.) Health care costs?
$12,000 surgery
Keratopigmentation changes the color of your eye by injecting dye into the cornea. It can be extremely dangerous. Potential side effects include bacterial infections, light sensitivity and even vision loss (paywall link). So not worth it.
🏥 The hologram will see you now: A hospital outside of Dallas is the first in the country to use a $65,000 Holobox. The device beams a 3D image of your doctor inside what looks like a futuristic vending machine for a slightly more personal telehealth appointment. Good news for areas with doctor shortages.
🩻 It’s not all black and white: You’re putting your private medical data at risk by asking AI bots to analyze X-rays and medical info. It’s tempting, I get it. But ChatGPT and the others don’t have to comply with HIPAA. If you want “Dr. AI” to help, be sure to redact personal info like your name, address and birthday. You never know where this info might end up.
👁️ Eye love this news: Researchers have restored the vision of people with damaged corneas. They took blood cells from healthy donors, reprogrammed them into corneal cells and formed a thin sheet to place on the damaged eyes. Three out of four patients have better vision a year later. Clinical trials are set for March.
Left in the dark: A woman went in for a gynecological biopsy, and she wasn’t given any anesthetic. The pain was so intense, she fainted. She posted her experience online, and it’s going viral. I hope she files a complaint with her local medical board.
If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with BS: Whisper, an AI transcription tool used in hospitals, has trouble with “hallucinations,” aka making things up. A study found eight in 10 transcripts had fakery, including meds like “hyperactivated antibiotics.” PSA: If you saw a doctor or were in the hospital lately, sign into your portal and check the notes for any nonsense.
☝🏻 Hope it doesn’t malfunction: Researchers have developed a human-like robotic finger capable of performing routine physical exams. The “bioinspired soft finger” uses tech sensors to feel around for abnormal lumps, take your pulse and even venture into — ahem — those other places for diagnostics. Bums away!
Spot the fake: Change Healthcare is offering free credit monitoring after this year’s massive data breach (paywall link). A reported one in three Americans had their insurance info, Social Security number, health conditions and more leaked. The credit monitoring is through IDX. If you get anything else in the mail, it’s a scam. Just a reminder: If you haven’t frozen your credit yet, here are the steps.
3 years away
From having the perfect AI employee that works 24 hours a day and doesn’t complain. Alex Zekoff, co-founder of Thoughtful AI, has every reason to hope for that. His company creates AI employees for use in health care. Given how fast the industry is progressing, I can see it.
100 out of 100
Quality of life score in Spain. It’s a hot destination for retirees since it’s easy to get around without a car, and the health care system, climate and flight accessibility are all top-notch. Hey, bet the kids would visit a lot.
🖼️ Hackers are branching out: The same hackers who infiltrated half of all Americans’ records in the recent Change Healthcare breach are at it again. They’re planning to leak names, ID numbers and birthdates from 500,000 wealthy clients at Christie’s auction house unless Christie’s pays up.
15 million vets’ health data was leaked: It was part of the recently reported Change Healthcare and UnitedHealth ransomware data breach. Supposedly, patients’ “full medical histories” weren’t compromised, but with more dirt coming out about the breach almost every day, who’s to say how deep this rabbit hole goes? Watch out for medical ID theft.
It just keeps getting worse: Think of one person you’d call friend or foe. Now, know it’s either them or you who just got their medical ID and health care details stolen. Yup, 50% of Americans were hit. Cybercriminals were in Change Healthcare’s system for nine days (paywall link) before launching their Feb. 21 ransomware attack. You really need to watch out for medical theft. Steps are on my site.
$9 an hour is the pay for AI nurses
Over 40 health care companies are already using NVIDIA and Hippocratic AI nurse bots to perform risk assessments, remote patient monitoring, new medication onboarding and more. The median pay for human nurses in the U.S. is $39 an hour.
Under siege: Change Healthcare, the hacked UnitedHealth Group company that processes insurance claims, already paid $22 million to a ransomware crime ring. It’s no surprise they’re a big target since they’re used by about 94% of hospitals, plus pharmacies and medical offices. Another group called RansomHub says they’ll sell the same data that was stolen during that massive February cyberattack unless they get paid in five days. We’re all screwed.
Folks can’t get their meds: Blame it on notorious cyber-gang Blackcat. Their ransomware attack on Chain Healthcare forced a system shutdown. Processing prescription claims is currently a nightmare. The FBI says hospitals should be on alert. It’s a scary time to need medical attention.