IT and Healthcare – Ranting Rex

In 2015 we saw some of the largest breaches in internet security related to health records. While I have heard many discount the danger of having their medical records breeched it evidently hasn’t occurred to them that it is also their personal information such as their names, addresses and social security numbers that have been accessed. While the media makes a huge deal when credit card data is used, this is nothing compared to the threat of identity theft on the millions of people who now have to worry that someone is walking around as them taking Disney vacations and buying big screen TVs.

To say that the back office processes at physicians’ offices and hospitals is antiquated is being kind. Many of them still keep paper records and record medical notes by hand, writing so quickly that it’s almost impossible for their 98 year old transcriptionist to translate the notes with their IBM Selectric. Just last week I had a doctor’s appointment at a large clinic and filled out a simple paper form that was almost impossible to read because it had been copied so many thousands of times that the text was no longer legible. It made me curious about how updated my care would be.

I’ve heard medical professionals tell me that paper is still the best and most secure way to keep information. No…not really. Just like anything else, the more times information touches hands the more opportunity there is for mistakes. This is why my doctor’s office thinks I’m a 75 year old woman with varicose veins and a goiter. Paper is not the way to go.

Too often the health industry chooses to be behind the technology curve. Technology managers who develop for the medical industry are constantly challenged with moving forward with a more secure solution while still trying to build for customers who are using 15 or even 20 year old technologies. Just recently Microsoft announced it will no longer support Windows XP or IE 8. However the medical industry still sees hospitals using Windows XP with IE 6.0 and even Palm mobile devices. Does anyone even remember Palm? This is on top of server technologies that manufacturers stopped supporting over decade ago. With that being the case it’s safe to say our medical information is not secure.

Back 30 years ago business leaders could take their time evaluating the next best thing. It wasn’t unheard of for a company to take three to five years to evaluate a product decision. Now that time’s been whittled down to a few months. No sooner has someone built a more secure time saving money saving solution than someone else has improved upon it. I’m not saying a company should try to update their business technology every few months, but they should at least be able to do it every two years. To wait five is negligent. Waiting for ten or more is nothing less than criminal.

The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. While political pundits argue about how good it is, no one can deny that the price tag is ridiculous. With that being the case you would think the infrastructure of the healthcare and health insurance industries would be of better quality. If we are to achieve an era of higher security and greater medical outcomes, certainly we must also consider how our records are kept. To do nothing less is to be negligent in how we provide care.

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