Healthcare Providers: Are You Providing Enough Data Security?
By Arron Fu, VP of Software Development at UniPrint. Arron looks at healthcare work environments and explores the role that technology can play in safeguarding and streamlining data.
CIO’s and IT professionals in healthcare organizations are tasked with achieving a balance between the demand for universal access to information and the need to ensure security. As Sheranga Jayasinghe, Director, Information Technology at Canada’s Sunrise Health Region says, “By its very nature, healthcare creates a number of unique challenges, from a highly mobile workforce to government-mandated patient confidentiality requirements.” The move toward electronic health records (EHRs) and pressure from regulations like HIPAA, which restricts the number of eyes permitted to see an individual’s confidential information, will only continue to grow.
Despite these drivers, a recent report published by the Ponemon Institute and the Health Information Trust Alliance shows that the healthcare industry continues to struggle with curbing data breaches. According to the report, about 94 percent of the 80 participating healthcare organizations experienced at least one data breach of which they were aware in the past two years. Such breaches cost healthcare entities about $7 billion annually in the US alone.
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