Technology has been on the forefront in solving human problems in various areas of life. The health department is a major beneficially of these innovations. It has tried to solve the problems of collection, storage and sharing of information in various ways. This article covers issues with the use of health information exchanges (HIEs), health information organization (HIOs) and cloud computing in health. The healthcare industry will not be left behind in migration to electronic based systems in their operations and record keeping.
Health information exchanges (HIEs)
Health information exchange is a system that allows doctors, nurses and other health officers to access and share patient information electronically in a secure manner to try and improve patient care. This system is faced with all sorts of challenges among them security of data in transmission. There various barriers of free flow of electronic data while simultaneously preserving privacy and integrity of that data ( Rajkomar, 2018 ). This is due to exposure to cyber-attack from cybercriminals. The cost of setting up these system and securing them keeps increasing due to changing imminent threats to these systems. Interoperability is a challenge for a health center to keep connecting to multiple other health centers. Most of the centers are only able to stay connect to just a few other systems as it requires multiple interfaces to connect to disparate systems. There are also competitive concerns between various health centers. Coordinated patients care is a challenge due to competitions as sharing information takes away business. Patient consent is also a challenge in information exchanges. It requires patient authorization and consent as a test of data exchange.
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Health information organization (HIOs)
These are government led organizations tasked with the responsibilities of control and ensuring interoperability and exchange of electronic health records among medical facilities. Some of their challenges include rules restricting data sharing. Different organizations have different restriction rules on their terms of sharing data ( Gard, 2019 ). Conflicting priorities of partners involved is a challenge too. The organizations begin on a similar platform but as times go by, some change their priorities and disconnect from their partnership. Incomplete data sharing also poses a challenge to changes in electronic health record systems. Another challenge is consistent behavioral health disconnects which affects the information sharing among the health information organizations in some rural healthcare centers. These challenges affect the performance of these organizations.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over a network, in this case the internet. The health industry is a beneficially of the rapidly growing computing industry as a necessary transition for health providers. According to Almorsy (2016), even with these advancements, the industry is faced with challenges of cloud security. Health centers have a challenge finding a cloud provider who is quick in incident response, able to contain and safeguard their data. Accessibility is also an issue in cloud computing. Regulating remote access through unsecured devices can easily become an epidemic ( Saha, 2019 ). Cloud downtime is an issue that has limited the healthcare from transitioning to the cloud. Even the slightest delay in service can cause outrage and loss of life. Data security has been a consistent issue in cloud computing especially with data transfer to an external provider. Internet related problems such as frauds and attacks from hackers are still imminent.
The transition of the healthcare system to electronic-based is inevitable. The information and technology department is dedicate to seeking solutions to data security and secure data transmission techniques to ensure integrity in the healthcare industry. This success will be achieved by all entities among them healthcare centers, health information organizations and cloud computing providers working together.
References
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107 .
Gard, G., Pessah-Rasmussen, H., Brogårdh, C., Lundgren, Å. N., & Lindgren, I. (2019). Need for structured healthcare organization and support for return to work after stroke in Sweden: Experiences of stroke survivors. Journal of rehabilitation medicine .
Rajkomar, A., Oren, E., Chen, K., Dai, A. M., Hajaj, N., Hardt, M., & Sundberg, P. (2018). Scalable and accurate deep learning with electronic health records. NPJ Digital Medicine , 1 (1), 18.
Saha, M., Panda, S. K., & Panigrahi, S. (2019). Distributed Computing Security: Issues and Challenges. Cyber Security in Parallel and Distributed Computing: Concepts, Techniques, Applications and Case Studies , 129-138.
