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Health Informatics Glossary
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B2B -
Short for an electronic commerce service that operates between businesses
(i.e., business to business). B2B services generally replace paper
transactions with electronic transactions. For example, HIE services replace
the faxing of patient records on paper with the secure exchange of electronic
patient records. See
HIE
BAA -
A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) allows a covered entity to employ a
contractor or other non-staff member (i.e., a "Business Associate") to perform
services or activities which involve direct access to individually identifiable
health information (IIHI). The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires that a covered
entity include contractual protections for IIHI, which is the purpose of the
BAA. In the agreement, a covered entity specifies safeguards for the IIHI used
or disclosed by its business associates. A covered entity may not contractually
authorize a business associate to make any use or disclosure of protected
health information that would violate the HIPAA Privacy Rule. See
Business Associate,
Covered Entity,
HIPAA,
IIHI,
PHI
Back Door -
Software code that allows a user (typically an administrator or a
hacker) to circumvent standard application security. May be used in
a complementary sense to describe software system administration tools,
or in a critical sense to describe an application that fails to secure
the perimeter of the software from unauthorized access.
Backbone -
Bulk, high throughput data circuits. May refer to circuits between
adjacent buildings on a single campus, or between non-adjacent
physical facilities.
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Backup -
As a verb, a process that creates an archival copy of data files or a system
state (e.g., to backup). As a noun, the archival copy of a data system (e.g.,
the backup).
Bandwidth -
A generic term referring to signal capacity, whether over a wire, a fiber,
or a wireless circuit.
Benchmark -
A measurement or evaluation of a business process in relation to the best
practices for that business process across the entire business sector.
Best Practice -
A technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has shown
to reliably lead to a desired result.
BI -
Business Intellegence (BI) is the category name for software tools and
analytic business processes that allow distributed queries of of enterprise
or federated data repositories. In a healthcare setting, BI tools allow
construction of focused management dashboards, built by pulling clinical or
operations data from disparate repositories. This information agility may
lower the deployment and operating costs associated with traditional data
warehouse projects. See
Dashboard,
Data Warehouse
BioSense -
A biosurveillance program
operated by the CDC that seeks to track health problems as they evolve and
provide public health officials with access to data, information and tools
to better prepare for and coordinate response to the incident.
Architecturally, BioSense is distributed via a cloud-based model and governed
by ASTHO in coordination with CSTE, ISDS and NACCHO. See
ASTHO,
Biosurveillance,
CDC,
CSTE,
ISDS,
NACCHO,
Syndrome
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Biosurveillance -
Systematic monitoring service to discover signals of potential biological
hazards. See
BioSense,
CDC,
CDPH,
Distribute,
EARS,
ESSENCE,
GIPSE,
ISDS,
RODS,
Sentinel Network,
Signal,
Syndrome,
WHO
Bit -
One binary digit, in base 2, the basis for electronic storage of data.
See
Byte
Blue Button -
The Blue Button enables users of
personal health records to download their health information as a common ASCII
text file, not as a structured CCD. The Blue Button emerged from the
development of the My Health
eVet portal by the VA. See
ASCII,
CCD,
VA,
VDT
Blue Shield of California Foundation
- See
BSCF
Bluetooth -
A proprietary short range wireless communication protocol,
bluetooth is used for portable devices
such as cell phone headsets, wireless keyboards, etc. Created in 1994 by
European telecom vendor Ericsson as a
wireless alternative to RS-232 cables. See
RS-232,
Telecom
Bot -
Short for a "web robot." A bot is a software application that runs automated
tasks, typically over the Internet. Bots perform tasks that are simple and
structurally repetitive, and can be programmed to operate at a much higher rate
than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web
spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and stores
information from web servers (e.g., search engines such as Google). Another
common use of bots is when a response speed faster than that of humans is
required, such as gaming or auction-sites. Bots can also perform nuisance or
criminal tasks, such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. See
Botnet,
DoS,
DDoS,
Spider
Botnet -
A group of internet-connected computers whose security defenses have been
breached and whose control is ceded to a 3rd party. Each compromised computer,
known as a "bot", is created when a computer is penetrated by software from a
malware distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the
activities of these compromised computers, such a launch a DDoS attack on a
target system. See
Bot,
DDoS,
Malware
BPPC -
The Basic Patient Privacy Consents service provides a mechanism to record
patient privacy consent(s) and a method to enforce consent appropriate to use
in an IHE environment.
See
IHE
BREAD -
Browse Read Edit Add Delete (BREAD) denotes the basic functions of persistant
data storage. See
CRUD
Breach -
As defined by HIPAA, the unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or
disclosure of protected health information which compromises the
security or privacy of such information. Apart from HIPAA, breach
is also a generic computer security term describing unauthorized
penetration of a system. See
HIPAA,
IIHI,
PHI
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Bridges To Excellence -
BTE is a line of business managed by the Health
Care Incentives Improvement Institute, a not-for-profit
organization that designs and creates programs that encourage
physicians and physician practices to deliver safer, more effective
and efficient care by giving them financial and other incentives to
do so. See
NQF,
P4P,
Pay For Performance,
QIO
Broadband -
A generic, nonspecific term referring to a digital communications circuit
with a high volume of signal capacity. See
Analog,
Dialup,
Digital,
DSL
Brooks's Law -
A principle in software development which says "adding manpower to a late
software project makes it later." The corollary says that an incremental
person added to a project makes it take more not less time. Brook's coarse
remark is "Nine women can't make a baby in one month." From the book "The
Mythical Man Month" published by Frederick Brooks in 1975.
BSCF -
Blue Shield of California
Foundation is a private healthcare funder, providing $30 million annually
for independent grantmaking.
BSS -
Business Support System, used in the telecom sector to describe external
customer facing service provisioning for an enterprise telecom network.
See
OSS,
Telecom
Bug -
A software defect that causes a computer system to behave inconveniently,
erratically or to fail altogether. Bugs are "reported" by users, are "tracked"
by software project managers, and are "resolved" by programmers.
See
Feature
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Business Associate -
A business associate is a person or organization, other than a member
of a covered entity's workforce, that performs any function or activity
on behalf of, or provides services to, a covered entity that involve
the use or disclosure of
protected
health information (PHI). Persons or organizations are not considered
a business associate of a covered entity if their functions or services
do not involve the use or disclosure of PHI, including where access to
PHI by such persons would be incidental. A covered entity can be the
business associate of another covered entity. See
Covered Entity,
HIPAA,
IIHI,
PHI
Business Associate Agreement -
See
BAA
Business Intelligence -
See
BI
Business Process -
A set of tasks, whether sequential, concurrent, or in combination, that
accomplish a specific organizational task (e.g., schedule a patient
appointment, originate a prescription, forward a referral, etc.).
See
Workflow
Business Rules Engine -
Business rules engines (also called inference engines) execute rules that
have been externalized from software application code as part of a business
rules approach. Externalization of business rules allows business users to
modify the rules frequently without dependence upon intervention by IT. The
system as whole becomes more adaptable because business rules can be changed
dynamically. See
Algorithm,
Expert System,
Inference Engine
Byte -
Eight bits. Bytes are generally counted in kilobytes (1,000 or 1,024 bits),
megabytes (1,000 or 1,024 kilobytes), gigabytes (1,000 or 1,024 megabytes),
etc. See
Bit,
Kilobyte
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