Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security
Lecture:HIPAA Security Rule
Slide content:In the End Ongoing breaches of data are worsening, but Complete security of all health information is impossible Security is a trade-off with ease of use; a happy medium must be found Will concerns be tempered when society sees more benefits of health IT? Would other societal changes lessen the impact of this problem (changes in legal system, health care financing, etc.)? 12
Slide notes:In bringing this discussion of privacy and confidentiality and security together, what can we conclude? Clearly, the ongoing breaches of data are getting worse, as discussed in previous lectures, so serious attention needs to be paid to privacy and security issuestheyre not to be taken lightly. However, its also probable that complete security of all health information is impossible. Too many people access information, too many of the applications are not as robust as they could be, and as discussed in a previous lecture, security is a trade-off with ease of use. As such, there needs to be a happy medium where the desired level of security can be attained without compromising the benefits of health IT, such as error prevention and improved quality. Another question that comes up is, Will the theoretical (and some real) concerns about privacy and security be tempered somewhat when society sees more of the benefits of health IT? A final question might be, would other societal changes lessen the impact of the problem? That is, would security risks be reduced if the legal system more rigorously prosecuted discrimination, if the health care finance system were more equitable, or if the health insurance system had a safety net to prevent people from losing their health coverage when, for example, they change jobs? 12