Do Efforts to Expand Digitally in Healthcare Compromise Patients' Confidentiality?

Over the past few decades, the world has seen a dramatic rise in the use of technology. With these changes, sharing of information has also changed as, individuals are more likely to share and seek information through social media avenues, apps, or wearable devices. Though the business world was quick to adapt to these changes, the healthcare industry is just beginning to integrate technology into day-to-day tasks. Healthcare providers have had to make big changes to allow for this transition.As the interest in digital health grows, many experts have started to ask whether patient confidentiality is at risk. For example, in 2011,Tricare, a company providing civilian healthcare benefits to military personnel, announced that a data breach had occurred involving personally identifiable electronic health records of nearly 5 million patients. According toKaiser Health News, approximately nine similar cases occurred in the United States involving data of over 10 million patients between 2009 and 2012. Some of these breaches were a result of lost data or computer theft while others were a result of hacking. These cases caused an outrage in the health world, highlighting the flaws that exist when it comes to digitization of health data. Does this mean that efforts to expand digitally compromises patient confidentiality?Deven McGraw, director of the health privacy project at the Center for Democracy& Technology, does not think that it does. Truth is that the health industry h...
Source: ePharma Summit - Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Digital Health Digital health records Digital pharma ehrs Electonic Health Records ePharma Medical records mhealth patient confidentiality patient records pharma strategy Source Type: blogs