The Health Information Trust Alliance recently announced that is has released an updated version of its Common Security Framework, which provides data security standards for organizations that handle protected health information, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 1/12).
HITRUST -- a group of health insurers, IT vendors and other industry leaders -- first set up the health IT security framework in 2009 (iHealthBeat, 11/18/10).
To update its framework, HITRUST added 12 new security measures and removed one measure. The alliance said the changes reflect "regulatory and market dynamics," as well as trends in data privacy and security threats facing the health care industry.
HITRUST also noted that it plans to add privacy standards to its Common Security Framework by December 2012 (Modern Healthcare, 1/12).