Ensuring Strong CyberSecurity for Practice Management

Cyber security holds an important place in the healthcare system. Patient data and records are valuable information that is not to be leaked under any circumstances. The EHR is a platform where the problem is, medication list and all the details of the patients are well recorded and it is mandated that the information are only accessible to people who are responsible as well as reliable. The companies that look after cyber security know that the private details hold utmost importance in a patient’s life or anyone’s life so as to say. Therefore, it is considered that all means and methods are followed to contain these pieces of information in a secured proximity and dealt with precision and responsibility. There is compliance that the company looks into to ensure that cyber security is avoided at all times, no matter what.

The threat that may linger to the patient's safely recorded information comes in the form of viruses, hackers, and malware. To avoid such instances, there have been potent methods that have come up to help the patient and the provider not fall into the trap of these unnecessary threats and delve only into the treatment, which is the sole purpose of the entire scenario.

EHR which is the enhanced version of the traditional methods of recording patient information, makes all the data accessible to the users at any given point in time. However, this access is only restricted to people who are given full faith in and know their work and abide by the rules and regulations of the company. Mostly the devices are equipped with security features making it an even more concrete means of not letting any data get leaked.

The healthcare unit should make it their prime time importance to protect the EHR from the threats of any hackers, malware so that the patient information can be put to use for the patient’s benefit and not otherwise.

There is various software that has taken the rounds that can encrypt the files in the computer or the device, making the data unusable and unworthy. The users of this software hack the information in the system to ask for money in return for the data they have seized. Emails are another way via which cybercrime is initiated in the first place. Thereby, it becomes the duty of the company who are in the position to look after the system to ensure that no data gets leaked or comes in the hand of a person who would manhandle it. The duty of the doctor and the entire healthcare unit is to protect the patient’s data and give them the best available treatment and service that they require.

Looking after the scenario that has been dwindling healthcare institutes, they have started working with their doctors, practitioners, cyber security experts to go to the root of the problem and understand the cause why such instances have been following and making strict rules and regulations to tighten the securities to make the information unavailable to unwanted users.

With the advent of COVID-19 there have been patients who have aggravated in terms of health. This society has seen a downfall in the individual’s health status when looked down at the population level. It is visible that this occurrence has led to more threats in terms of the loss of patients' information because more targets are at loose now. Therefore the government healthcare institutes all work together to understand that this is one of the times where special care needs to be taken, assuring the patients that their falling condition is not a detrimental factor via which that information can be leaked. The patients come in to get a treatment done in a clinic or hospital, and the medical strata should always remember this fact. That is why it becomes the duty of the entire medical sector to protect the patients’ information and not let anything hamper it.

Another new change that the Government has brought in is the work from home trend due to the uncertainties outside the comfort of her house and the threat that the virus may pose when exposed to it. The Government had set up rules to function from home, and all the tasks that are not an emergency case are to be operated through the four walls. This was true even in the medical sector, where doctors were looking upon mild to moderate cases through virtual calling, and telemedicine and teleconsultations were the method of choice. But this brings the patient at the risk of getting exposed to more threats when lots of information is concerned. Training and important notions were circulated among doctors to be well equipped to understand how to deal with this situation and save their patients information from cyber crimes.

Since the pandemic there has been even more tightening of this security when hospital or home based computers are put into use. The security threats and attacks are typical in today’s world even more when the COVID was doing the rounds. This is the sole reason why the healthcare society has become more vigilant in trying to preserve their patients' information with utmost honesty so that nothing can hinder their patients' privacy.

The first step to protect from cyber crimes is to spread awareness to everyone, from doctors to patients to the entire medical staff. The awareness factor is mandated to know how and what cyber security is like. There is no point in letting loose your information and being in the radar of attacks from people to whom you have to pay back in cash or kind.

Every now and then, new technologies are coming up that are helping to protect these data from cyber attacks allowing the patient to satisfactorily attend to his treatment without having to wonder about the security of his information. EHR or electronic health records are a viable means through which patient records are put into use for the sole reason of future reference. Talking about future reference, we mean that it is one such platform that is preserving the patient data to be later on utilised for different treatment plans after having an overview of the patient’s past medical records.

Now the records that are made or preserved for the benefit of the patient should not bring them to a point where they have to get blackmailed by unwanted people because there were no safety measures taken place from the healthcare side.

Only to ascertain the patient’s safety, the healthcare unit has to preserve the information to the safest of use and not let any unnecessary means linger by it.