Imprivata Health Care News Watch 4/29/13

Welcome to this week’s Imprivata Healthcare News Watch!

Today, we are reading stories about how long it will take for Big Data to deliver value, Box’s first steps into healthcare data sharing and an interview with security expert Bill Fox on ACOs’ security concerns.

What are you reading today?

Healthcare's Big Problem With Little Data Forbes - According to Gartner, Big Data has about 2-5 years before reaching it's ”Plateau of Productivity.” That's the enviable point at which a technology finally delivers predictable value. The promise of Big Data, of course, is a treasure trove of high value across many industries – including healthcare. Everything from predictive and prescriptive analytics to population health, disease management, drug discovery and personalized medicine (delivered with much greater precision and higher efficacy) to name but a few.

A Better Way to Share and Store Electronic Health Records InfoWorld - Missy Krasner faces a big challenge in taking care of her aged mom, who sees eight doctors for different medical issues. Krasner discovered that these doctors have no way other than fax to share data with one other, so each has an incomplete picture of her mom's medical status. Box's foray into confusing world of digital health data could be the first step toward consumerizing messy situations such as Krasner's. The first steps in Box's effort were revealed this week when the company announced it achieved federal HIPAA and HITECH compliance certification (which competitors such as Dropbox have yet to earn) for storing health information while maintaining patient privacy, as well as getting smaller EHR providers to use Box for cross-provider data exchange, small-facility EHR sharing, and PHR use.

ACOs: The Security Challenges Healthcare Info Security - Data exchange is essential to the success of ACOs, however, that data sharing creates risk. As healthcare reform takes root and new accountable care organizations are created, health data potentially becomes more vulnerable to breaches, says security expert Bill Fox. In the interview, Fox, a former prosecutor, also discusses health data security concerns related to cloud computing, the threats to health data security and privacy by organized crime and why training is important in preventing breaches involving mobile devices.