Week 3

By Connor Ledbetter:

The digitalization of health provides endless opportunities for the healthcare industry. Pairing technology with healthcare can to streamline workflows and enhance the delivery of care is cutting edge and alleviates some of the tedious burdens of the job, post learning curve. However, with any new possibility, there are those who will seek to exploit it for personal gain.  The way in which that will be done is, at times, obvious. Yet more often than not, the developers and implementers of technology do not know the ways in which new innovations will be used perversely.

Putting myself in the role of a project manager or project sponsor who has been tasked with overseeing the technological infrastructure of a healthcare organization I realize that there are two main ways in which I would be able to avoid having the hospital’s technology and databases from being hacked or attacked by malware. The first would be to avoid technology altogether and stick to the tried and true methods of paper documentation and reporting. Secondly, I could do my best to foresee the negative uses of technology and surround myself with a team dedicated to preparing for and preventing those breaches of security. Seeing as how the former option is not entirely feasible if I hope for my organization to have sustained success, the second option is the only realistic one. There is no way to predict all of the negative outcomes that will accompany the transition of hospitals into the digital age, and to think that a system can be completely secured is naïve. Yet, efforts must be made to avoid negligence and do our best to secure sensitive information that patients have entrusted us with. The best way, in my view, to prepare for these uncertainties is to structure security measures into system wide protocols and consistently update them. A diverse security team will have to think as innovatively as the technology itself to prepare for security breaches of any nature.