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In the digital practice — where sensitive business and patient information is stored electronically — ransomware is one of the most devastating forms of malware. It works by encrypting or blocking access to sensitive files and demanding payment to restore access.¹ The loss to a healthcare practice — and its patients if medical records access is blocked — could be devastating. If the attack is successful, it is nearly impossible to recover the data without paying the ransom.

A 2023 survey found that more than a third of U.S. adults—40%—use health apps to achieve fitness goals and track their health, an increase of 6% since 2018, while more than a third use wearables, an increase of 8% since 2018.¹ On the clinical side, roughly a third of physicians, residents, and medical students believe data from consumer health apps and wearables—aka, mHealth—can be very beneficial to patients but they also feel largely unprepared to incorporate it into their practice.²

A patient compensation fund (PCF), as the name suggests, helps to ensure reasonable compensation for patients who have been injured due to medical negligence. These funds were legislative responses to the medical malpractice crisis of the 1970s that saw several cascading factors threatening instability in the medical liability market. As state tort laws became more favorable to plaintiffs, plaintiff attorneys recognized the opportunities presented by medical malpractice lawsuits, especially in an environment of increasingly complex medicine.¹

Disruptive patient behavior, particularly violence, is a growing problem that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.^1,2 Patient-physician conflict over COVID vaccines, treatments, and masking easily can become difficult to control.

Violence and agitation can be triggered by many different factors. These factors can be categorized in various ways. The list of triggers below is divided by responses to healthcare provider behavior and communication, environmental factors, and symptoms of patient illness. Understanding what causes disruptive behavior can help prevent and de-escalate it.¹