Elisa Sung • June 6, 2023
The digitization of healthcare has led to more efficient implementation of clinical trials, improved patient outcomes and less burden on medical staff. As an example, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) consolidate a patient’s information into one place, reducing the likelihood of lost or misinterpreted data points. Recent technologies such as wearables also enable remote monitoring and telehealth, providing greater convenience to patients in terms of time and often financial costs.
As digital innovations grow more prevalent in the healthcare space, it is key to ensure that patient health data is kept secure and private, while also allowing for accessibility.
Sherri Douville’s, CEO of the Mobile Medicine software platform Medigram, new book Advanced Health Technology, debuted #1 on Hottest Release for Medical Technology on Amazon. Her coauthors, experts from different industries, including engineering, law, IT, healthcare, education, and entrepreneurship, came together to create a guide for stakeholders, which include healthcare organizations and medical device companies, on how to navigate patient data privacy and access in a world threatened by cybersecurity risks. Douville’s call for organizations to adopt and integrate advanced technologies, as opposed to consumer-grade technologies, as a way to overcome data security risks. When they do so, they will be better able to improve the patient experience, patient and business outcomes, the clinician experience, and reduce the cost of healthcare. With emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration, Douville hopes to provide a roadmap among all healthcare stakeholders in order to diminish knowledge gaps and help organizations tackle risks to digital health systems.
The book consists of 16 chapters divided into 4 sections, covering topics such as medical and tech misinformation, medical staff burnout, leadership models, cybersecurity, and barriers to widespread implementation of advanced technologies. Chapter 10, titled “Managing 3rd Party Risk”, discusses health data security in the context of apps and how to make decisions surrounding data access. Chapter 15 addresses interoperability and information blocking. In 2016, lawmakers passed the 21st Century Cures Act to prohibit parties such as networks, healthcare providers, and EHR platform developers from information blocking. This term refers to the restriction or outright prohibition of a patient’s access to their data. However, organizations still continue to struggle with information blocking. With the multitude of platforms and systems involved in the digital healthcare pipeline, interoperability is key to effective communication, which in turn helps patients, providers, and payers.
At the VIVE 2023 conference, Douville points to a lack of clarity regarding cybersecurity risks, as a result of insufficient educational resources. Subject matter experts, she discusses, would help healthcare organizations make informed decisions surrounding their electronic data. Rather than recruiting solely from highly specialized or regulated industries, any individual with the right skill set can receive training and certifications in healthcare to integrate them into an organization. Douville suggests reaching out to people with backgrounds in security, IT infrastructure, and project management. By bringing in subject matter experts, healthcare organizations can better understand the mechanisms behind data security and privacy, allowing them to make informed decisions for the benefit all stakeholders.
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