[ISN] Health IT security is 'a collective problem'

http://www.clinical-innovation.com/topics/privacy-security/health-it-security-collective-problem

By Luke Gale
clinical-innovation.com
Dec 17, 2012

Health IT’s integration into clinical practice will continue growing and 
it’s time for healthcare to commit to making a connected health 
landscape safer, according to Tim Zoph, keynote speaker at the Privacy 
and Security Forum hosted by the Health Information and Management 
Systems Society and Healthcare IT News.

“We’re heading down a path of sophistication, but we’re not doing it 
with the foresight of security,” said Zoph, senior vice president and 
CIO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare in Chicago. “The reality is 
there are too few companies investing in cyber security.”

Since 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services has tallied a 
total of approximately 21 million individuals affected by the list of 
security breaches to date that involve more than 500 records. Surveys 
show that nearly two-thirds of patients affected by breaches lose 
confidence in the organization responsible and nearly one-third have 
considered changing providers due to privacy and security concerns, 
according to Zoph.

Security concerns remain despite increased utilization of consumer-grade 
technologies like smartphones and tablets. Zoph estimated that there 
were 300 Northwestern employees using personal mobile devices for 
work-related purposes in 2009 and 2,500 currently. The increased use of 
mobile devices is not a problem and is probably beneficial to patients 
and providers, according to Zoph. “The most natural device in healthcare 
is one that’s mobile and always on. We have those now. It allows our 
workers to get ever closer to patients.”

[...]


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