As many as 55 percent of professionals in the medical device industry could be looking for a new job in 2010, while professionals working for smaller companies were found to be the most positive about the coming year, according to the results of an online survey conducted by medical device recruitment firm, Legacy MedSearch.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded the Kansas Health Policy Authority a $1.7 million grant to fund the initial planning process for deploying health IT within the state Medicaid system and Childrens Health Insurance Program.

An estimated 500,000 BlueCross BlueShield members may be at risk for identify theft following an October data security breach at a Chattanooga, Tenn., office. While most of the at-risk members reside in Tennessee, BlueCross has identified 32 states with 500 or more members whose data may be at risk as of Jan. 8.

PACS developer Infinitt Healthcare has established its sixth subsidiary, the Shah Alam, Malaysia-based Infinitt SE Asia (ISEA). ISEA has been established to better support existing customers in the region, and will focus its marketing and sales activities specifically in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, according to the Seoul, South Korea-based global company.

Last month an external electronic data storage device containing patient health information for approximately 15,500 Northern California members of health insurance company Kaiser Permanente was stolen from an employees car at the employees home in Sacramento, Calif.

Organizations should act prior to the implementation of the new (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) HIPAA compliance guideline changes for 2010 and consistently monitor their facilities in order to make an easier transition and avoid the extended penalties that are now being proposed, said HIPAA privacy and security consult Grant Peterson during a Jan. 13 Webinar on the guidelines.

Connecticut Attorney General (AG) Richard Blumenthal announced Wednesday that he is suing Health Net of Connecticut for failing to secure private patient medical records and financial information involving 446,000 Connecticut enrollees and promptly notify consumers exposed by the security breach.

Ellen Makar of Yale-New Haven Health System, Conn., and Sandra Ng of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center were both selected by the Alliance for Nursing Informatics to participate in a two-year Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program.