Electronic Medical Records: Success Requires an Information Security Culture

Pro or con, the increased use of electronic medical records (EMR) is revolutionizing the world of healthcare. What both sides of the EMR issue do agree upon is solid information security practices are a necessary part of this transition.Although HIPAA regulations were meant to improve healthcare security, many challenges still remain. For example, audits reveal lax security; information breaches are increasing and identity theft along with fraud are prevalent. In response to these identified problems, the real solution requires a security culture to be in place with a holistic back-to-basics safety approach of the entire data lifecycle. These include upper management buy-in, policies and procedures, risk management and protection of sensitive data to be part of the daily routine.