Gus Malezis – The Health Care Blog

We Need a Digital Identity Framework to Guide the Challenging Transition to Remote Healthcare

Nov 5, 2020• 1

By GUS MALEZIS

We don’t often see two Republicans and two Democrats come together to offer solutions to problems. But even at this difficult time in America, I can see bipartisanship in a truly meaningful way. The intensely-challenging issue of digital identity is bringing members of Congress of both parties together.

Most American adults rely on an 84-year-old system of identification — the social security number. But that ID is limited in use, and does not serve us well in healthcare and especially as COVID-19 – beyond the healthcare and safety issues – makes us an ever more digital nation. We are indeed accelerating our national pivot to a digital nation as we, for example, log on to go to school or work, to buy food, to shop for clothing, or to pay bill and transfer money from a bank account. And, now more so than ever, healthcare is becoming digital, as we seek to navigate a digital world to visit the doctor, to fill a prescription, or to review medical test results. Digital identity presents a major obstacle to a safer and smoothly functioning digital healthcare experience.

As the Coronavirus disrupts our nation, and healthcare delivery turns increasingly digital, on-line fraudsters have not been interrupted; they have simply been given far more opportunity than they might have imagined.

Top 3 Myths About Digital Identity in Healthcare

Jan 10, 2020• 1

By GUS MALEZIS

Healthcare is in the midst of a digital transformation, creating information security, compliance, and workflow challenges. The engagement of an increasingly decentralized workforce along with anytime anyplace healthcare and the proliferation of cloud-based applications, databases, and mobile devices have now (or soon will have) eroded the once well-defined network perimeter.

The healthcare industry remains one of the most highly targeted for cyber-attacks – a recent report from Beazley Breach Insights showed that, 41 percent of all breaches in 2018 occurred in the healthcare sector. This means that, going forward, healthcare organizations must pay particular attention to cybersecurity and do so without restricting or compromising access to the systems and services providers and patients are now using and may do in the future. A successful cybersecurity plan requires these organizations to focus on establishing and managing trusted digital identities for all users, applications, and devices throughout the entire extended digital healthcare enterprise – from the hospital, to the cloud, and beyond.

Why are modern hackers targeting healthcare? Because they can, and they have the opportunity to do so! Hackers also know the value of the data stored within provider systems. Today, medical records fetch up to ten times more money on the dark web than the average credit card.