Privacy & Security

This month we look at how the COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing healthcare organizations' approaches to security, now and in the future.

According to an Amnesty International investigation, personal information, including names, national ID numbers, health status and location data could have been exposed.  

Billed by the software giant as its first industry-specific cloud product, the newly-launched platform is also aimed at enhancing patient engagement, improving provider communication and boosting analytics.

COVID-19, otherwise known as coronavirus, has entered the lexicon as if it was always there. Everyone has an opinion. Globally the response has divided and united populations and no less so in the UK, says global digital adviser and NHS clinician Dr Sam Shah. 

When it comes to cybersecurity issues, many in the healthcare industry likely recognize the importance of protecting patient medical data.

The legislation would forbid companies from using health information for "discriminatory, unrelated or intrusive purposes."

Also, commercial results of the national testing programme in this week's Healthcare IT News roundup.

The tools could help payers manage the demands of standards-based interoperability challenges, and also offer security, identity management and consent management.

Even as ONC and CMS push for wider patient data sharing, many healthcare consumers are hesitant. The American Medical Association has issued new privacy principles supporting the rights of individuals to control how their health information is used. 

The technique, called federated learning, is designed to enable collaboration among far-flung research organizations on machine learning models, while still protecting patient privacy.