Healthcare IT: Is your Information at Risk?

TL;DR

Healthcare IT advances improve patient care but increase security risks; effective Information Assurance programs are crucial to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance amid rising data breaches.

Contribution

This paper highlights the importance of robust IA policies in healthcare to mitigate security risks and discusses strategies for risk management and compliance.

Findings

Increase in healthcare data breaches emphasizes need for stronger IA policies

Effective IA programs require continuous risk assessment and monitoring

Organizations often have inadequate security policies

Abstract

Healthcare Information Technology (IT) has made great advances over the past few years and while these advances have enable healthcare professionals to provide higher quality healthcare to a larger number of individuals it also provides the criminal element more opportunities to access sensitive information, such as patient protected health information (PHI) and Personal identification Information (PII). Having an Information Assurance (IA) programallows for the protection of information and information systems and ensures the organization is in compliance with all requires regulations, laws and directive is essential. While most organizations have such a policy in place, often it is inadequate to ensure the proper protection to prevent security breaches. The increase of data breaches in the last few years demonstrates the importance of an effective IA program. To ensure an effective IA policy, the policy must manage the operational risk, including identifying risks, assessment and mitigation of identified risks and ongoing monitoring to ensure compliance