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Access to healthcare data on mobile devices will be on the minds of many a healthcare executive this year, according to industry experts gauging the top trends in 2012.
Compiled by ID Experts, a Portland, Ore.-based provider of data breach solutions, “Top 11 Trends for 2012 in Healthcare Data” includes several references – both positive and critical – to the fast-growing mHealth industry.
According to the company’s press release, “2011 was the year when most physicians had mobile devices, when healthcare became one of the most-breached industries, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) cracked the whip with investigations and multi-million-dollar fines for organizations that didn’t meet their patient privacy obligations.”
At the top of the list is the prospect of data breaches caused by the spread of mobile devices in the workforce. That’s the opinion of Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, which issued a recent study that indicated 81 percent of healthcare providers use mobile devices to collect, store and/or transmit personal health information – but 49 percent say they’re not taking steps to secure those devices.
That leads to the second most-important issue on the list: Class-action litigation. According to Kirk Nahra, a partner with the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP, class-action lawsuits will increase in 2012 as patients take on healthcare organizations who fail to protect their PHI. “Regardless of the outcomes, these lawsuits are a significant risk and tremendous expense for companies affected by them,” the ID Experts press report states.
The third issue on the list concerns the rise of social media risks in healthcare, while the fourth most-important issue facing healthcare executives in 2012 will be security and privacy risks associated with cloud computing – both issues of which have significant play in the mHealth field. They’re all ties together by the seventh most-important issue on the list: The explosion of mobile devices in the healthcare setting.
“The use of tablets, smartphones and tablet applications in healthcare is growing exponentially,” the report states, citing consultant Christina Thielst (who also blogs regularly for mHIMSS). “Nearly one-third of healthcare providers use mobile devices to access Electronic Medical Records or Electronic Health Records (EMR/EHR) systems, according to a CompTIA study. Providers will need to balance usability, preferences, security and budgetary concerns, as well as adopt written terms of use with employees and contractors using personal devices at work.”
Other trends for 20912 cited in the ID Experts report include increased pressure on HIPAA enforcement, an increased risk to healthcare providers of reputation fallout resulting from data breaches, more emphasis on privacy and security training, an increase in fraud attempts and a new emphasis on cyber liability insurance.
“The overall forecast? Protecting patients’ protected health information (PHI) should be viewed as a patient safety issue\,” ID Experts officials concluded. “If the right actions are not taken, experts predict healthcare data breach will reach epidemic proportions this year.”
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