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Top 3 Concerns for Healthcare Around BYOD

BYOD in Health Care

BYOD in Health CareDarren Leroux, Senior Director of Product Marketing and WinMagic, writes in Healthcare IT News about three specific challenges healthcare organization face when dealing with Bring Your Own Device programs. As with any other industry these concerns revolve around data security and device/application breaches but with such sensitive data and strict compliance and regulatory standards these security concerns are most certainly elevated.

Per usual, healthcare organization put up with these concerns because of the benefits that BYOD programs bring to the table. Leroux highlights access patient data, billing information, clinical trial data and employee information on the go as the leading benefits fueling these initiatives. So what are the three largest concerns that Healthcare IT is address in order to realize those benefits? Here he is a quick excerpt from Leroux piece:

PHI and device vulnerability

“The three most vulnerable forms of lost or stolen data in healthcare are patient billing information, employee records and non-patient records. Breaches are happening as healthcare providers use their personal devices to share PHI with another provider, for example the primary care physician sharing prescription information with the pharmacist or the X-ray tech showing anMRI to a physician. If providers want to be able to use their devices to enhance care delivery, they need to make sure that they are doing so securely.”

BYOD security and more healthcare breaches

“One reason for the prevalence of healthcare breaches is the lack of organizational adherence to their own policies. Healthcare organizations don’t have the luxury of waiting while their employees gradually come around to grasping the importance of following encryption requirements. Given the sensitive nature of data at hand and all the regulatory and compliance requirements within their industry, health leaders must incorporate better practices when it comes to protecting patient data.”

Putting Compliance in Perspective

“Complying with regulations such as HIPAA and HITECH is a challenge in and of itself, but implementing a BYOD policy while complying with these regulations is another challenge entirely. According to a recent report, HIPAA data breaches have increased by 138 percent since 2009.”

Click here to read the full article and for more on the three most pressing concerns in healthcare when it comes to BYOD and mobility.

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