In the United States, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), which is the major law for health data regulation, applies only to medical providers, health insurers and their business associations. Its definition of “personal health information” covers only the data held by these entities. This definition is turning out to be inadequate for the era of the Internet of Bodies. Tech companies are now also offering health-related products and services, and gathering data.

An online program will be launched for high school students to develop successful leaders through unique case studies, social enterprise Aspire Impact said. The program, which will be offered online this year, is in academic partnership with UVA’s Darden School of Business.

(Subscription required) The coronavirus has parked multitudes on their sofas, where many have gone half-mad reading rants from advanced-studies graduates of the University of Twitter. Matthew Crawford’s “Why We Drive” is the perfect antidote. Mr. Crawford, a senior fellow at UVA and the author of “Shop Class as Soulcraft” (2009) and other works of social philosophy, has written a thoughtful, entertaining and substantive work about the joys of driving – and about the attempts by various scolds to relegate that joy, and similar expressions of independence, to the junkyard of history. 

Large public universities and elite private colleges will also undoubtedly suffer financial hardship from the pandemic – James Ryan, president of the University of Virginia (which has a nearly $10 billion endowment) says the university will have to “tighten our belts, just like other organizations and universities across the country” – but those schools aren’t currently in danger of closing forever. COVID-19 may come and go, but the uncertainty plaguing students at small colleges across the country is here to stay.

University of Virginia students who lost their summer internships due to COVID-19 are now helping area businesses transition online in the wake of the pandemic. The Central Virginia Small Business Development Center is teaming up with UVA for the Propel Management Consulting Program. The projects will target Fluvanna, Louisa, Orange and Greene counties.

A UVA law professor said the law is written quite broadly. “And while it does not specifically denote the closing of businesses, it does certainly give the governor wide discretion to do what needs to be done in the face of an emergency,” said professor Rich Schragger. As for Dillon’s claim that the governor’s order infringes on a person’s right to assemble under the First Amendment, Schragger doesn’t agree. The right has to be connected with the exercise of speech, he said. “It protects a right of collective protest, not a right to eat in a restaurant or operate a restaurant,” he said.

Researchers project that coronavirus closures could lead to much greater learning loss in reading than usually occurs during the traditional “summer slide.” But with the stress and trauma that many students are experiencing during the shutdowns, it’s possible that the effects could be even greater, said Emily Solari, a professor of reading education at UVA’s Curry School of Education and Human Development. 

The University of Michigan is America's top-rated public college, based on national rankings issued by American City Business Journals. The University of North Carolina and the University of California-Berkeley are the runners-up in the 2020 academic standings, with the University of Virginia and the University of California-Los Angeles rounding out the top five.