Mobile health information technology is something that is
continuously growing and changing the way we care for patients. The
idea of mobile health information technology was something that was
somewhat jumpstarted when the pandemic was in full force. c We had
made progress with technologies like mobile charts for patients inside
of apps and wearable devices to help monitor health status and
conditions. Many of the apps and wearables have many lines of fine
print which in some cases results in your information being given to
third-parties to use. c This poses a serious ethical problem when it
comes to the privacy and security of patient health information. c The
designers/creators of these apps and wearables to need to consider
that even though new technology is our way forward, the risks of data
compromise rise as much as the technology advances.
To prevent security breaches such as cyber-attacks, phishing,
ransomware, malware, medical identity theft, and data breaches
through the use of technological tools such as audit trails and data
quality monitoring programs organizations need to be aware of the
constant threats that are posed daily. A fully-functional IS/IT
department with collaboration with the HIM department can be your
best defense against these type of attacks. My organization sends
out random emails from outside the organization to test employees to
see if they can spot phishing emails. They also offer training
opportunities in-person/virtually or on-demand learning in which an
employee can learn at their own pace. Since the beginning of the
pandemic there have also been a sharp rise in cybersecurity attacks
on hospitals and organizations need to be aware that there are targets
on their backs. "However, when a patient’s PHI is stolen, the patient
cannot change, for example, their birthdate, blood type, and health
and genetic information. Once stolen, health information is widely
applicable and valuable for a range of crimes, from identity theft to
medical fraud. An individual’s health information is valued
significantly more on the dark web than their social security number
or credit card number; it can sell for 10 to 20 times more than this
type of data [7, 8]." (Argaw et al., 2020).
Thanks for reading, stay safe all!
References
Argaw, S. T., Troncoso-Pastoriza, J. R., Lacey, D., Florin, M.-V.,
Calcavecchia, F., Anderson, D., Burleson, W., Vogel, J.-M., O’Leary, C.,
Eshaya-Chauvin, B., & Flahault, A. (2020, July 3). Cybersecurity of
hospitals: Discussing the challenges and working towards mitigating the
risks - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision making. BioMed Central.
Retrieved May 31, 2022, from
https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.118
6/s12911-020-01161-7
Code of medical ethics - american medical association. (n.d.). Retrieved
May 31, 2022, from https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-
assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/code-of-medical-ethics-chapter-
10.pdf
