1. Overview

Our hospital outsources the analysis of blood tests for "protein fractions" to Osaka Serum Microbiology Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Osaka Serum), and the results are saved on a USB memory stick along with the collected sample and then handed over to Osaka Serum.
The loss of the delivered USB memory stick was discovered on November 18, 2020, and Osaka Serum immediately conducted a search within the company and at other contracted medical institutions, but it has not yet been found.
In addition, our hospital has already notified the national agency, Personal Information Protection Commission, and the Osaka City Health Center.

2. Lost Information

The data stored on the USB memory is total protein test data from blood test results conducted at our hospital between November 9, 2020 and November 11, 2020, and no other test items. The test data includes the reception date, reception number, patient ID, name in kana, requesting medical department, requesting doctor, and test values, and the actual number of patients is 1,526, with 1,717 pieces of data.
In addition, in this case, it was discovered that measures to prevent information leakage, such as password lock functions on USB memory sticks and file encryption, had not been implemented.

3. Measures to prevent recurrence

After this incident occurred, we immediately changed to a USB memory stick with a password lock function and changed our file encryption operations.Furthermore, we subsequently changed our operations so that total protein tests are measured by Osaka Serum, and therefore we no longer hand over test values.