Netgain

For anyone who has attended the annual HIMSS conference, you know it can be overwhelming. 2017’s HIMSS Annual Conference was no different, with over 40,000 health IT professionals and 1,200+ exhibitors sprawled across what seemed like miles of exhibit hall space at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. It was abundantly clear that this year, the healthcare industry is hungry for technology solutions to drive efficiency and improve patient experiences.

Much of the buzz at the event was centered on a handful of core topics, so we wanted to share some of those key takeaways here for those of you who weren’t able to make it out to Orlando this year.

There are very big concerns about IT Security in this age of mobile healthcare technology.  In order to abide by federal regulations, healthcare personnel and facilities must safeguard patients' records and privacy.  This is especially important in view of the proliferation of mobile communication and IT devices.

Keeping up with HIPAA and healthcare IT regulations can be a full-time job, if it is done in-house.  However, most companies can outsource the liabilities associated with non-compliance by hiring Information Technology (IT) experts who can make sure the small hospital or physician’s office is in compliance, even when they aren’t aware of all the details. This can reduce the need to hire in-house technology experts who spend a lot of their time just keeping informed on HIPAA and healthcare IT issues.  It also provides a much leaner IT workforce, but one that is uniquely qualified to provide the four basic offerings necessary to be in compliance: protecting data, limiting and managing access to sensitive medical information, implementing disaster recovery and emergency protocols when necessary, and monitoring network security.

No matter the size of your operation, if you have other people's personal records, you are a target for information theft.  If you are a rural doctor or small hospital administrator you may think that your patient records are locked up safe.  Only a few people have access to your computers so everyone is safe, right? Wrong.  Alarming trends of criminal use of patient information show an increased need for tighter IT security measures.  Here are some of the numbers when it comes to criminal use of patent information.