When it comes to software, data protection is crucial. Even the most basic apps on your phone can collect your data and use it for analytical or commercial purposes. But hardly any private information is more important than your electronic health records and other sensitive healthcare data. That’s why data security in healthcare is paramount. To protect their patients, healthcare providers must keep all of their information completely private. This involves creating systems for data encryption and safe storage, as well as implementing security measures against data breaches. {{ "title": "Write ChilliCode", "description": "To help you acknowledge your business needs and decide whether IT services will work for you, I’ve sorted out a list of cases.", "buttonText": "Contact us" }} In this aricle, we’ll tell you how to protect sensitive patient information and ensure that your healthcare software is hacker-proof. CHILLICODE is a team of experienced healthcare developers — we know how to create the most secure medical apps. We’ll share our knowledge of the best data security practices in 2024 to help you protect your own healthcare platform. What is data security in healthcare? Before we dive into the details, let’s ask ourselves one question: what is data security in healthcare? The answer is fairly simple: it’s a process of ensuring patient data confidentiality. It usually involves setting up security measures like data encryption and managing platform access controls. This functionality can only be built by professional backend developers who know what they’re doing — like us at CHILLICODE. The scope of required security measures will depend on the complexity of your healthcare platform. For example, if you’ve developed a simple app for scheduling doctor appointments, the process will be fairly straightforward. The app probably won’t store a lot of sensitive healthcare data, so you’ll just have to worry about safeguarding personal appointment info. On the other hand, if you’ve created a comprehensive platform for healthcare organizations, it will be much harder to implement adequate security measures. Such an app will likely have a lot of moving parts: video calls, live chat, interactive calendars, budgeting tools, and more. This means that you’ll have to examine every component of your platform to make sure it complies with all the security standards. What makes data security important in healthcare? Let’s explore how healthcare organizations can benefit from implementing reliable security measures in their digital platforms. Healthcare data security allows these companies to: 🔒 Protect patient data 👩🏼⚖️ Ensure compliance with local laws 📉 Avoid financial and reputational risks 💰 Efficiently manage the business This is an absolute must for all healthcare providers. If a medical company doesn’t keep patient data private, customers will eventually find this out the hard way, and their business will be impacted as a result. Healthcare organizations need to follow the security standards set by their governments. This includes laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). What happens if a hacker leaks all of the sensitive data stored in a medical app? This would result in a financial and reputational disaster for most companies. It can be prevented by making healthcare platforms more secure. In addition to protecting from data breaches, good security allows to prevent serious technical errors that would affect a medical business. For example, you’ll be able to protect your platform from data loss, ensuring an efficient business workflow. Security risks in the healthcare industry Now let’s discuss three most important security risks facing healthcare organizations in the digital space: Data breaches Over the past few years, many companies around the world have reported sensitive data leaks due to hacker attacks. From credit card info to personal addresses — all private data is potentially at risk when it comes to the digital space, and the healthcare industry is no exception. If a platform's security isn't top-notch, hackers can easily leak electronic health records and other sensitive patient information, resulting in a PR disaster for the company. That’s what makes data security important for all healthcare providers, without exception. Poor access controls Considering how much sensitive data is stored inside medical apps, it becomes especially important to properly manage access controls when it comes to healthcare platforms. This means ensuring that only authorized users can access private information like patient records, while everyone else is kept out. Otherwise, that data would be in danger of getting leaked, which would not only hurt the patients, but also the medical company itself. Deprecated software Even in 2024, many healthcare providers are using outdated software that doesn't meet the ever-changing security standards. While using old tech solutions can allow these companies to save money, it ultimately opens them up to cyberattacks. To minimize the risk of your platform getting hacked, we recommend investing into reliable up-to-date software. There’s no better way of doing that than by creating a secure healthcare platform from scratch, with the help of professional developers — like us at CHILLICODE. We know what tools and resources to use to make your medical app safe from hackers. Standards for healthcare data security When it comes to the healthcare industry, different countries around the world have their own official policies for data protection. For example, the United States has the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA for short. This federal law outlines the security requirements for healthcare organizations, establishing the rules for handling patient records. It also gives patients a set of rights over their own electronic health records: for example, they have the legal right to ask companies how exactly their personal data is managed and stored. The European Union has its own law for data security — the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short. It establishes the core principles for managing and safeguarding private information in the digital space, which includes patient data. There’s also ISO/IEC 27799 — an EU healthcare data security regulation similar to the American HIPAA law. In our day and age, it’s hard to overstate the importance of complying with local data protection laws. This is especially crucial for healthcare organizations that constantly handle the most sensitive data. Before you start developing your medical app, we recommend studying your local laws for data security in healthcare. By doing this, you’ll be able to plan out the appropriate safety measures for your application and make sure it launches as smoothly as possible. Some medical organizations hire contractors like Cisco to help them with data protection. This approach can be costly, and is often favored by larger companies with a sizeable budget Challenges for healthcare data security in 2024 Every year, healthcare organizations face new security challenges. Let’s go over the most relevant data protection issues that a medical business may encounter today or in the near future: New types of data breaches Hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approach to breaching security systems. They can find even the smallest flaw in your system’s infrastructure and exploit it for their own gain. These criminals can infect healthcare platforms with sneaky ransomware viruses to demand a reward for stolen patient data. They can even exploit wearable devices and the IoT infrastructure of a medical business, which can result in major financial and reputational losses for the company. With the ever-evolving scope of cyberthreats, it becomes critically important to invest in a solid security system to protect your medical business. Rising amounts of data The digital space is constantly improving. These innovations lead to an increase in the quantity of data circulating through digital platforms, which puts an additional strain on security and storage systems. It is also becoming harder and harder to effectively sort through this information to protect the most valuable data. All of this means that modern healthcare companies need to choose only the best technologies for managing data. These include solutions for cloud storage, backup, and file encryption. Furthermore, medical businesses today need to hire professional software security experts to help protect the company infrastructure from external threats. The growing cost of compliance with security standards As time goes on, more and more security risks emerge. Complying with all data security laws and regulations requires a significant budget, which is only getting bigger every year. Whereas not following these standards will result in legal problems. This is a serious challenge for many medical organizations — especially the non-profit ones. Any new healthcare business emerging today should take this into consideration and plan their budget with security costs in mind. Best healthcare data security practices Today’s digital landscape poses many threats and challenges to healthcare companies. Let’s discuss the best approaches to dealing with them and protecting valuable healthcare data such as patient records: Develop a reliable system for data encryption In 2024, file encryption is essential both for personal and corporate use. It gives your data an additional layer of protection against cyberattacks. Complying with data security laws usually requires implementing some type of file encryption. It’s one of the most effective tools for guarding sensitive information, and by integrating it into your digital product, you’ll significantly reduce the chances of data breaches. Conduct regular security tests and audits Even the most robust security systems require regular and thorough testing. After all, any digital product has certain flaws in its backend that can be exploited by hackers. By performing routine stress tests and security audits, you’ll be able to further improve your system’s infrastructure and better protect your clients’ data. You’ll greatly benefit from having a competent team of programming experts on your side — like us at CHILLICODE. We’ll be able to pinpoint security issues and help your business comply with all the necessary data protection laws. sub Establish security guidelines for your employees Imagine this scenario: a clinic has launched an advanced medical app with state-of-the-art security features. It supports integration with IoT devices and is designed to help medical professionals do their jobs more efficiently. However, the clinic hasn’t trained their employees how to use this platform properly. They aren’t familiar with even the most basic security protocols. Such a scenario would most likely result in an accidental data leak due to simple human error. Even the most secure healthcare platform will be at risk if a company hasn’t trained their employees. That's why we recommend keeping employees up-to-date on the latest cyber threats and instructing them how to use your digital platform safely. Otherwise, all of your valuable data would be at risk. Final thoughts The world of cybersecurity can be overwhelming. Hopefully, we’ve managed to shed some light on the most important data protection challenges faced by healthcare organizations in 2024. If you want to develop a highly secure medical platform, get in touch with us at CHILLICODE. We’ll help you create an innovative product that complies with every modern standard for data safety.
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