Ensuring Data Security Amid An Ever-Increasing Flow Of Medical Information
By Dr. Jeff R. Livingstone, Unisys
The rapid advance of technology is dramatically impacting workforce behavior across multiple generations, from Millennials to baby boomers. Today’s worker expects the same innovation, convenience, and security they experience as consumers to aid them in the workplace. Unfortunately, this is often not the case in the life sciences and healthcare arena.
The New Digital Workplace Divide, a survey conducted by Unisys in partnership with the London-based research agency Loudhouse, engaged more than 12,000 people across 12 different countries to understand the importance of deploying current and future digital capabilities in the workplace. Respondents came from a range of industries, including life sciences and healthcare.
The results raise a serious warning flag for these industries. A growing “digital divide” is arising within the modern workplace between organizations that place themselves at the forefront of technological investment and those that fail to invest successfully in the latest technology. More specifically, there is a stark divide between businesses considered to be technology leaders as those marked as technology laggards. The side of the divide on which a business falls has a deep and lasting impact on employee attitudes, emotions, and productivity.
Results show this divide is particularly wide for the life sciences and healthcare industries, making it an outlier among the general trends of others. However, disruptive technology and today’s emerging digital workplace solutions can help the life sciences and healthcare industry laggards close the gap, particularly in the areas of satisfaction, productivity, and security.
Enhancing Satisfaction
A greater percentage of workers in life sciences and healthcare do not have an ordinary desk job compared to other industries. Many are remote workers or are constantly on the move, utilizing mobile technology options and 24/7 IT support. Yet, despite this fact, approximately half (47 percent) and a third (33 percent) of respondents stated that they generally resort to phone and in-person visits respectively to get IT support because more advanced support methods are not available. This can be frustrating, as support personnel may not be available as needed. These are also the costliest methods of support for an institution. However, more modern solutions involve online helpdesks, online chat, self-service help options, and artificial intelligence (e.g., chatbots), which not only help save costs, but increase employee satisfaction because they are immediately available to workers when they are needed.
Boosting Productivity
The survey noted that 88 percent of workers at technology leader organizations feel positive about their jobs and are proud to work for their employer. In contrast, just 18 percent of workers at laggard organizations feel the same. Additionally, nearly half of workers for technology laggards (44 percent) report being frustrated with their employer’s level of technology adoption, compared to only seven percent of workers at technology leader organizations. These numbers speak clearly to the attitudes that exist within the digital workplace – attitudes that can lead to either increased or decreased employee productivity.
Within life sciences and healthcare, workers indicated a belief that biometrics, internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies would benefit their working environment over the next five years. These technologies have significant potential to increase worker satisfaction and boost productivity. However, the current understanding of these technologies and their applicability is limited, suggesting there is an opportunity for life sciences and healthcare organizations to facilitate greater use of these technologies and most importantly, help explain to employees exactly how they can benefit from it.
Strengthening Security
With its massive and growing volume of personal and proprietary data, the life sciences and healthcare industries are increasingly under attack. News headlines constantly bear it out. It is therefore of great concern that a large proportion of employees in the study revealed that they are exposed to several vulnerabilities as a result of their employers’ approach to IT security. Only 36 percent of the respondents believe that security is approached with utmost priority. About one-third of all respondents have attempted workarounds such as writing down passwords (27 percent) and emailing files to themselves (29 percent) to get around security processes that negatively affect productivity. Hackers can easily exploit such vulnerabilities to get unauthorized access into organizations’ networks. Such incidents can result in serious damage, such as theft of a patient database, ransomware attacks and device malfunction.
Narrowing The Digital Workplace Divide
When forming a business case for investing in new workplace technology, enhanced satisfaction, increased employee productivity and stronger security are at the top of the list. Fortunately, new technology can help directly address these areas. Consider an omni-channel support solution, leveraging virtual agents that utilize AI and machine learning to decrease resolution times. Workspace Productivity as a Service solutions are designed to meet strict industry regulations and can be hosted on a private cloud so that data is made available across departments and hospitals. In similar fashion, Unified Endpoint solutions give workers easy access to patient information through virtual desktop-enabled point-of-service workstations.
With these components in place, life sciences and healthcare organizations can move toward their rightful place as technology leaders, ultimately bringing new life to their employees, their businesses, and the patients they serve.
About The Author
Jeff R. Livingstone, Ph.D., is the vice president and global head, Life Sciences and Healthcare, for Unisys. He brings over 30 years’ experience and knowledge about the science of drug discovery and molecular engineering, as well as cybersecurity and IT modernization within the industry. He can be reached at jeff.livingstone@unisys.com.