Neil H. Baum, MD

GRU Contributing Editor Neil H. Baum, MD, Professor of Urology at Tulane Medical School, discusses the importance of cybersecurity for protecting your urology practice. He explains that it is necessary to protect your patients’ data from hacking and phishing so that you do not need to spend large sums of money to buy it back. Most practices, small and large alike, do not have cybersecurity plans in place, and smaller practices in particular are easy targets. The first step in implementing an effective cybersecurity plan is to educate your employees. Dr. Baum also notes how important it is to build a firewall so that you can protect against phishing, and offers some other suggestions on how you can be proactive against it. Finally, he discusses both why your practice needs to have a response plan in place in case the worst does happen and how to go about creating one.

GRU Contributing Editor Neil H. Baum, MD, Professor of Urology at Tulane Medical School, shares his experience treating a Jehovah’s Witness patient, and how he managed to balance the patient’s health with his and his family’s faith. The patient was undergoing a radical nephrectomy and, due to proscriptions of his religion, his son did not want him to receive any blood transfusions during the operation. However, when his family was not around, the patient said he was not as religious as his son and would like a blood transfusion if it were medically necessary. During the surgery, the patient lost a significant amount of blood and did need a blood transfusion, which he received, and Dr. Baum describes how he navigated the delicate situation of saving his patient without directly informing his family how he did so. Was it better to tell the truth or lie to protect his patient? He discusses the ethics behind the decision that he made and the lessons that he learned from it.