The revolution in the healthcare industry is being fueled by a number of devices which include mobiles, smartphones, tablets, laptops and the like. The concept of bring-your-own-devices (BYOD), is a logical progression of the exponential increase in the number of privately owned smart devices. This approach allows physicians and their support staff to use their own devices for work, in the hope that it will help them improve their workflow and efficiency.

According to an estimate, nearly 85% of the hospitals allow their employees to bring their own devices. However, this is a significant point of concern for regulatory authorities, such as Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), and the government. As the number of devices simultaneously connected to a hospital network increases, so does the difficulty level in ensuring complete security of important patient data. The IT departments of hospitals then have to manage their internet bandwidths, which come under a lot of pressure. The possibility of hacking, viruses and slowing down of the network due to large files being transferred, also surfaces.

One of the solutions to this problem is to have a separate internet connection for all the mobile devices and tablets being used inside the hospital premises. Another alternative is to ban personal devices altogether. However, the BYOD concept cannot be banned immediately since it does allow physicians and support staff to remain connected to the hospital’s central network, and access patient records at any time and from anywhere they are required, thus saving plenty of time.

Research firm Gartner predicts that the annual market for mobile and wireless solutions in the healthcare industry, will reach $1.7 billion by 2014. This is quite significant compared to the overall size of the US healthcare industry, which is currently estimated at $3 trillion.

So what can the hospitals and providers do to find a middle ground between allowing personal devices to be used inside the premises, and ensuring that they are not misused to steal patient data? Let’s highlight a few areas of concern.

Implement Mobile Device Management

Mobile Device Management (MDM) is a concept where all mobile devices, that are going to be used inside the hospital, will have to be registered with the IT department. The department will implement a uniform network security policy to control and monitor those devices.

Secure data with Mobile File Management

After establishing one central location for managing all the devices, there needs to be very close control over how files are being accessed, stored, shared and deleted. The IT departments of the hospitals need to make sure that all the data going in and out of those devices is heavily encrypted, and can be wiped off them remotely, whenever required.

Security issues

The IT departments of the hospitals need to make sure that they regularly conduct in-house audits, in order to stay compliant with the regulatory authorities and government audits. Any potential security risks must be dealt with immediately.

Making it user friendly

In order to avoid any unintended breach of security policies by the employees, due to a lack of awareness, intuitive and user-friendly training sessions should be held regularly, to keep the employees abreast of whatever changes are being implemented in the network and device usage policies.

Strategy for worst-case scenario

Hospitals and providers also need to ensure that there is a step-by-step threat reporting procedure in place, in order to guard themselves against any potential data leaks or risks. This will help them in addressing problems quickly and efficiently.

Mobile devices and web-based solutions are quickly taking over the industry. Therefore, it is imperative to have proper security measures in place to ensure complete data security.