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What CITI Program is Reading – 2/23/21

“What CITI Program is Reading” is our weekly blog series which highlights news articles curated by our staff and relevant to research, higher education, healthcare, technology, and more. Follow us on LinkedIn for upcoming editions and more information from CITI Program.

The next act for messenger RNA could be bigger than covid vaccines
Messenger RNA discoveries and technology were utilized in the development of COVID-19 vaccines including the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines. However, this technology shows the potential to reshape drug development by possibly allowing for inexpensive gene fixes for cancer, HIV, and other medical issues.
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Breaches Cost U.S. Healthcare Organizations $13bn in 2020
A report compiled from the Department of Health and Human Services records shows that over 26 million people were affected by healthcare data breach incidents in the U.S. last year. While there were several factors accounting for the breaches, 91% of the compromised records were due to hacking and IT incidents, costing the healthcare organizations an average of $7.1 million per breach.
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UHN launches study to explore how Apple Watch can help with early identification of worsening heart failure
In collaboration with Apple, the University Health Network has launched a study to observe if sensors and features from opple Watches can provide early warning for worsening heart failure. The study aims to determine if traditional clinic-based assessments can be performed remotely. The technology could allow patients with limited resources, to receive quality care.
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Clinical Trials Are Moving Out of the Lab and Into People’s Homes
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a shift toward virtual studies which could positively impact expense, efficiency, and equity. A permanent shift may offer people the opportunity to participate in trials who otherwise wouldn’t have the time or resources.
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How Businesses Can Look To Prepare For The Long-term Cyber Security Impacts Of COVID-19
Cyber criminals are using the chaos caused by the pandemic to take advantage of organizations that may need to improve their imformation security infrastructure. Organization’s should proactively map their vulnerabilities and set security goals to be prepared for threats.
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Researchers design more secure mobile contact tracing
The spread of the coronavirus has created a need for increased contact tracing which has led to widespread use of contact tracing apps. However, these apps may be releasing more data than actually necessary making users vulnerable to privacy risks. Researchers are developing a secure framework for mobile contact tracing to limit the risk potential misuse of private data.
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AI can help reduce the risk of HIV in high-risk communities
Peer change agents can promote healthy behaviors and information about disease prevention within their social networks. A research team at Harvard partnered with social workers to test an AI system they have developed to identify those within a social network who can best promote information about HIV prevention to their peers.
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What are human challenge studies?
The World Health Organization (WHO) describe human challenge studies as “trials in which participants are intentionally challenged (whether or not they have been vaccinated) with an infectious disease organism.” The UK recently received ethics approval to run the world’s first COVID-19 human challenge study.
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Who Should Stop Unethical A.I.?
Research by Neural Information Processing Systems (Neurips) has been the topic of recent controversy in the AI community. The question that arises out of these sometimes heated discussions is who should be reviewing and regulating AI research as most as it is mostly self-regulated
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CITI Program’s Related Content Offerings

Information Privacy & Security (IPS)
IPS covers the principles of data protection, focusing on the healthcare-related privacy and information security requirements of HIPAA and the educational records and data-related requirements of the FERPA.
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Remote Contact Tracing (Free Course)
Train individuals to conduct remote contact tracing for COVID-19 according to an established protocol and using evidence-based practices.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Subject Protections
Explores the current protections, regulatory elements, and ethics tools associated with protecting human subjects in light of AI research.
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Technology, Ethics, and Regulations
Explores a range of technologies that have received significant global attention, with a focus on the ethical issues and governance approaches affecting those technologies.
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