Mobile Technology Meets Healthcare: Risks and Remedies

Mobile Technology Meets Healthcare: Risks and Remedies
a complimentary one-hour Web seminar:
Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Time: 12 p.m. Eastern / 9 a.m. Pacific
Duration: 1 Hour

The use of laptops and smart phones is big in healthcare, but the newer tablet devices, including iPads, and competing BlackBerry and Android-based tablets, are taking mobility in healthcare to a whole new and exciting level. Doctors are using them for go-anywhere EHR access and data entry, allowing them instant access to patient information. While the ease of accessing this information wherever can be appreciated, it does present new risks to Protected Health Information (PHI) and challenges the organizations responsible for safeguarding PHI to think harder about addressing important issues of increased mobility, including visual privacy – the protection of sensitive data while it is displayed on screen.



In addition to accessing EHRs, doctors are also using new mobile devices to help them explain conditions and treatments to patients. For example, Dr. Henry Feldman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston used his iPad to show his patient the bleeding ulcer causing him so much pain, and then compared it to images from Frank Netter's "Atlas of Human Anatomy."[1] In fact, Dr. John Halamka, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, claimed at Apple's launch of the iPad 2 that the iPad "will change the way doctors practice medicine."[2] It is clear that mobile devices are here to stay.

With use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry growing both in terms of numbers of users and also in the expanding number of applications, it is even more important to understand the most efficient ways to secure these devices in an effort to protect patient information and mitigate risk.

In this web seminar Kate Borten, CISSP, CISM, president of The Marblehead Group, addresses the following:

• Privacy and security risks associated with mobile technology in healthcare, including the issue of visual privacy
• Consequences for HIPAA covered entities and their business associates
• Strategies for mitigating mobile risks

Register for this webinar here.