Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) are the latest buzz phrase to hit the compliance marketplace. In a recent post blogger phiprivacy.net, reported on the opinions of top IT experts, about the top Patient Health Care Information trends for 2011.
Amongst a clear indication of increased breaches; imposition of fines and other regulatory action; as well as the implementation of new laws, the experts identified the launch of new health information exchanges (HIE) as the main driver of change in enforcing increased security and privacy.
Although HIEs have a noble purpose in making it easier for health care professionals to access patient information electronically across multiple organizations within a region, community or hospital systems, in order to provide more efficient and effective care, the risks of increased exposure to data breach remain high.
Not only do the experts point out that many HIEs will be launched by inexperienced and understaffed organizations, they will be launched in an industry (health care) which has consistently failed to keep pace with data security best practices and governance.
This is clearly a case of health care organizations putting the cart before the horse.
