Emerging Technology - Concerns

With some basic understanding of Digitization of Patient Records becoming the "norm" like CD was to Tape (like DVD to CD), there are many implications and "growing pain". The biggest being privacy and security

Security Gaps Leave Patient Records Exposed by health MSNBC.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43054034/ns/health/t/security-gaps-leave-patient-records-exposed/#.TlUVC6iNsf4

The article see the centralization of patient records have many concerns but not limited to:
1) Privacy failure
2) Security Parameter and Requirements
3) Implication and Application of the Health information and records

As my career in the health industry grows, my responsibilities became more and more on the liability of the patient information (anything from lost information by user error/failure, hardware failure, or security breaches). It is imperative in our careers, we need to address setting up an optimal security. This is followed by clear and defined rules and guidelines to implement the security. Application (be it by pilot testing or fake sampling) to ensure our implementation meets and exceeds requirements.

Lastly, technology is not always a start and end procedure but a cyclical process. I understand as a project manager the importance of milestone and close date but technology does not stay stagnant and our roles has to adapt to newer technology (including ones that could compromise the data) as well as process improvements (metric measurement). The word I always state is we need to have all the stakeholders involved, held accountable to the define responsibilities, and ensure the resources are there for stakeholders' success (training, changing the procedural/process flow).

The implications here with the digitization are there will be needs for more project and data managers in the health industry. HIT (health information technology) is a growing segment and with the changing technology, everyone involved has to see the payout as the responsibilities (Remember my 1st quote of Peter Parker in the Spiderman movie).

This is why people need to audit (like the article, one hospital store radiology data in a backdoor room that was lock by tape.. Not even locked). They need to understand the implication of this memory lapse of security. Remember how it feels when someone knows your password to your email. Now, imagine it is 1000 patients. How about a research hospital server was used as a gaming server for hackers (SonicWall Case Study - Southwest Family Medicine- http://www.sonicwall.com/downloads/F204_Southwest_v4.pdf ) because they did not have:
1) Right plan and personnel
2) Understand the severity of access
3) Cost and Liability of this breach

With the rise of Identity theft, the emphasis of security is greatly enhanced in the health industry. What is the biggest and my greatest concern is with globalization, how do we protect our patient records when our information is transmitted overseas? Remember, HIPAA does not apply just say India. How are the technology going to protect us there.

An Article that published indicates how our information reaches global proportion and ramification. Again, there is no HIPAA laws in India (but they state they comply with the laws). What security protocols are there and the emphasis of protecting your information is the heart of all issues.

http://www.workplaceprivacyreport.com/2009/10/articles/hipaa-1/hipaa-data-breaches-in-india-threaten-outsourcing-industry-require-greater-vigilance-at-home/

How does technology impact me? Everywhere from my patient records, my credit card, banking statements, my student loans. What health technology transformation shows are that people can't just be "doers". We have to think outside the box (without project scope creep) and knowing how to add the human element to technology. My success in the industry is to emphasize and understand the implication of the office and making it happen by phases/projects and showing the rewards (Return of Investments) and value in approaching our goals. So HIT professionals have to understand the value of technology, disaster plan for technology, implementations (with cost in mind), and understand the human side (changes in process, etc) to making this change a reality and success.

Lastly, you see the change in technology when you go into a dental office. See your x-rays on a computer screen instead to lighting station for your old x-ray film. That is technology change in how dentists do business and getting quicker impact to the patient (films take a longer time to develop but a digital x-ray take less than a minute)