No doubt, technology has proven to be a viable tool for radicalizing the way we hitherto did things. Sector-wide, IT solutions abound for the optimization of processes and methodologies. The health sector is not left out in this trend.
But with IT adoption in the health sector comes security issues –in light of the sensitivity of patients’ health data. Nosy individuals breach IT systems of health institutions to illegitimately access patients’ health information. Reasons range from perpetuation of identity theft to insurance fraud, obtainment of illegal prescriptions, amongst others.
Averagely, the fall-out cost of failure to adequately protect patient information hovers around $717,000 per incident. This alone is enough to make an affected health institution suffer a drop in its goodwill and revenue.
To protect patients’ health data and reduce incidences of breaches, the following are the protective mechanisms, safeguards, and methodologies implemented by health institutions. Some of these measures come on the heels of requirements laid down by statutes, or industry rules or regulations. Others are protective measures that have evolved to become health standards.
Patients’ Data Encryption: The majority of countries in the European world require that patients’ data be encrypted – whether at rest or in transit. For the United States, the position isn’t any different. The HIPPA stipulates that patient health data or information must be encrypted –unless the subject has a legitimate reason why encryption is undesirable in such circumstances. Even at that, a suitable data protection alternative must be provided by the institution.
The essence of medical data encryption is to make medical data unreadable when illegally accessed. No wonder the HIPPA contains punitive fines of $50,000 per violation, where health institutions fail to comply with HIPPA requirements.
More details in subsequent blogs.