Article Feb 26, 2021 4 min read

How to enhance telehealth IT security in 2021

Peter McCarthy

Feb 26, 2021 4 min read

Peter McCarthy

A private, cloud-based telehealth solution will address security and compliance issues and enable powerful interoperability and integration features.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many hospitals looked to the cloud to quickly deploy new telehealth solutions. This was easier and more scalable than establishing on-premises hospital IT solutions, and the sudden urgency for remote healthcare meant that technology was sometimes chosen without a long-term strategy in mind.

As we settle into the “new normal,” your organization may be left with several questions about the telehealth IT infrastructure you deployed during the pandemic.

Is it secure enough for the long term?
Are you missing the major potential for added value with a more integrated solution?
How can you find a solution that’s both secure and scalable?

Before we answer these questions, why not listen to a new podcast on Why Telehealth Security Matters for Patient Satisfaction, where I speak on Becker's Healthcare podcast about the challenges and influence of strong telehealth security...

Image: © Becker's Healthcare

Increased cloud-based telehealth has raised IT security concerns

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Veritas reported that cloud adoption in healthcare core operations was as high as 83%. However, only 7% of these cloud services met compliance and security norms. This major discrepancy could be due to some leeway granted to organizations that didn’t fully follow HIPAA compliance in the U.S., GDPR in Europe, or other healthcare data regulations, due to the critical need for providing remote care. But what about now?

Security vendor Vectra’s 2020 Spotlight Report on Healthcare highlights why the rapid shift to cloud hosting for telehealth has greatly increased IT security risks. The report found that technology implementations were often done in a hurry and without the proper due diligence on vendors and configurations, creating a much larger threat.

This means that hospital IT is more vulnerable, and at the same time, attacks are on the rise. A study by SecurityScorecard and DarkOwl uncovered a recently piqued interest in the top 20 telehealth companies from hackers on the dark and deep web. The increase in telehealth keywords from these sources was as much as 144% from the second to the third week of March 2020, as attackers were looking to exploit the Covid-19 crisis.

And, to add insult to injury, average global data breach costs were the highest for the healthcare industry, reaching $7.13 million according to the Ponemon Institute’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report for IBM. In addition to the costs of identifying and responding to a data breach, this was compounded because of the heavy regulatory fines for non-compliance with data protection regulations.

With telehealth here to stay, it’s time to move beyond quick fixes and implement long-term solutions that ensure security and compliance with regulations. But security is not the only consideration for a future-proof telehealth platform. How do you also maximize value?

An integrated platform can improve telehealth ROI

Perhaps you run video consultations with patients over one cloud service, monitor wearable data through another app, use an electronic health record (EHR) system for medical records, and use another tool for appointment scheduling. The problem is that none of these systems are integrated. Sound familiar? This system's complexity causes several problems that get in the way of achieving telehealth's total ROI and potential.

For instance, it’s hard for your staff to work efficiently when they must flip between many application windows to find information due to a lack of interoperability. And it’s difficult to respond to today’s rapidly changing needs when you can’t effectively practice data-driven decision-making, which requires real-time data analytics.

KLAS Research found that 65% of healthcare organizations had still not solved the challenge of real-time data analytics, and 39% were still stuck on interoperability in late 2020. This means you can no longer afford to have patient data in many silos with non-interoperable solutions.

The answer is a more integrated telehealth platform that allows you to bring all those workflows, applications, devices, and data together in one place. This will create more synergies across your operations and unlock the full potential of telehealth across your organization.

However, telehealth platforms with robust integrations are usually installed and managed on-site, while cloud-based telehealth allows you to scale based on patient demand easily, freeing up your team to focus on the business of healthcare instead of IT maintenance. Does this mean you have to give up on the cloud's scalability, flexibility, and simplicity if you want a secure and interoperable solution? Not necessarily.

A private cloud solution for telehealth

A solution like Pexip Private Cloud provides the best cloud and self-hosted offerings by eliminating security and compliance issues while retaining cloud agility. Our telehealth platform, Pexip Health, can combine a private cloud deployment option with powerful interoperability and integration features usually found only in self-hosted solutions. When it comes to telehealth, the future is now, and it’s time to fully modernize your healthcare organization with a secure and scalable solution.

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