50

Years since Xerox Corp. introduced the commercial fax machine

18

Years since HIPAA was enacted to improve health insurance access and portability, and “to combat waste, fraud and abuse” in the health care system

63

Percentage of physicians who communicate with other physicians via fax, one of the few channels that HIPAA approves unambiguously

1,100

Faxes, on average, received per month by physicians in 2013

50

Minutes that could be cut from discharge time, according to 65% of respondents to a recent survey of health care professionals, if secure text messaging were approved under HIPAA

34

Percentage of physicians who communicate with other clinicians via e-mail—despite e-mail not being defined as a secure channel by HIPAA

1.5 million

Dollars, settlement paid by a Boston-area hospital in 2012 after an unencrypted personal laptop containing electronic protected health information was stolen