The equation is simple: higher quality data means higher quality medical care. One of the advantages of the digital age is the ability to synthesize huge amounts of data quickly. However, the data used must be accurate. Electronic health records are known to contain many errors, and patients can assure accuracy of their personal health data when they have access to check it. With patient trust through data use, transparency and data control becomes more detailed—and better data in, better and more accurate and precise conclusions out.
They sell consumer data non-transparently to unidentified entities that use the data for uncertain purposes with ambiguous ethics, creating a data economy with network effects favoring a few platforms able to collect and lock up the largest masses of personal data. The data being recorded about a patient forms a remarkably detailed picture of their life.
This picture is incredibly valuable when unified and stored both as a singularity and in conjunction with thousands, even millions of other lives. These pictures reveal patterns that permits the personalization of medicine, insurance, finances, and more but the question is, who owns and controls this valuable picture? And what about the risks associated with massive data leaks through hacking and other data breaches? Transparency and personal data controls are keys to creating a balanced and fair patient-centric digital data economy that promotes diverse and open competition.
Patient control of access to their own data is needed for a number of reasons. First, it promotes data exchange across healthcare systems to assure access to critical health data wherever the patient may seek care. Healthcare systems should be required to provide patients with their full medical record in electronic in a timely manner, and those systems who do not comply should be held accountable for data-blocking. The reality is that some diseases and illnesses, such as sexually transmitted diseases and mental health illnesses, still have stigmas attached to them.
As a patient, you might feel embarrassed or ashamed to have your health conditions shared with others. You might wonder what your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers think of you. Both of those decisions could hinder your treatment, affect your prognosis, and even harm others. Whether in work or in life, you want to be judged by your abilities—not by your illnesses or chronic conditions. Ignorance can cause people to have misguided ideas about sicknesses. And their fears and negative stereotypes can have a negative impact on you.
Trust is everything in healthcare. On a larger scale, when the medical community is trusted, the public is more willing to participate in research studies and healthcare campaigns that can prevent the spread of certain illnesses. Would you be willing to recommend a doctor that had betrayed your trust? Would you leave that doctor a good review online or speak highly of them in the community? But on the other hand, you probably would recommend a doctor that values patient confidentiality. Trust builds relationships, which in turn, builds a reputation.
If doctors can be trusted, they can build good relationships with their patients and also preserve their reputations—not just in their local communities but in the medical community as well. Violations of the HIPAA law can result in steep financial penalties or imprisonment, not to mention a ruined reputation and career. Patient confidentiality is important for both patients and doctors, and it preserves the integrity of the medical community.
When this happens, organizations can suffer reputational damage as customers may lose trust in their ability to protect patient data. Protect your practice's reputation and build customer trust by securing sensitive data within your network and thoroughly vetting the platforms and programs you use in the workplace by trying to avoid those who sell patient data whenever possible.
Your employees are your weakest link when it comes to your practice's cyber security. You could have the best cyber security tools available on the market and your entire network could be brought down because one employee clicked on a phishing link or created a password that's easy to hack.
Training employees about cyber security best practices from the day they start work will help foster a culture of personal accountability. Workplace cyber security policies should include a few points. First off, be sure to include general points about how to stay safe when working online and in programs.
This can include tips such as remembering to log out of computers when they're not in use or how to securely send sensitive information to other employees. Tips on creating secure passwords should be an integral part of any employee cyber security policy, seeing as many people do not even realize that their passwords are weak. Advice on how to recognize and avoid phishing schemes can go a long way in preventing cyber attacks on your business.
Take your workplace cyber security training a step further by sending phishing tests to your employees. These tests see which employees click on a fake phishing scheme and automatically enroll them in a training session.
When you let your employees access all private company information, from secure financial documents to patient files, you risk an employee with bad intentions leaking the information. Additionally, you give a hacker more chances of finding an employee with access to a certain account. Implementing role-based security procedures minimizes the risk of important information being leaked or stolen, prevents employees with bad intentions from accessing any information they want, and keeps your organization compliant with HIPAA by preventing employees from accidentally accessing sensitive patient information they aren't authorized to.
Assign different levels of security clearance to employees based on how important it is for them to have access to that information. For instance, a blue level employee who is simply a nurse might just have access to charting systems, while a red level employee handling the company's financials might just have access to financial accounts and programs. Data privacy is a chief concern for healthcare organizations that wish to prevent network breaches and stay compliant with regulations such as HIPAA.
However, the task of staying compliant and preventing data breaches is complex and evolving,. Having little to no cyber security measures in place, such as using just a firewall or an anti-malware software, leaves your organization extremely vulnerable in the event of a cyber attack. Robust cyber security systems with multiple layers of protection, including software, hardware, and trained IT professionals to monitor and patch up your network, ensure that your network and the private information it holds stay safe.
Consider managed IT services as a way to holistically protect your network from hackers. Managed IT services layer multiple security measures in a proactive approach.
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