Tech Leader Highlights the Role of Identity in Securing Digital Transformation in Healthcare

As healthcare accelerates digital transformation efforts, leaders are confronting a critical balancing act: advancing innovation while fortifying defenses against growing cyber threats. According to the 2024 Digital Health Most Wired report, IT budget allocations for digital initiatives nearly doubled from 4.8% to 9.7% year over year. This indicates that digital transformation is now essential to care delivery. However, in this race to digitize, security cannot come at the expense of clinicians’ time or patient experience.

For clinicians, every second matters. Complex logins and layered authentication protocols can slow workflows and strain productivity. The expanding threat environment, with ransomware attacks and data breaches on the rise, forces organizations to heighten controls that often become burdensome for users, particularly clinicians. This creates a daily struggle between protecting data and providing care for those reliant on technology to do their jobs, despite its intended purpose of making care more efficient.

“When we do look at what’s going to happen over the next three years, and we think about the pace of change that we’re accustomed to, it will probably speed up,” predicted Joel Burleson-Davis, Imprivata Chief Technology Officer, when discussing digital transformation in a recent interview with Frank Cutitta for a Health Stealth Radio conversation, featured in DHI Insights. “If you really look back at the last 10 years or 20 years, the pace of change has been ever-increasing anyway.”

As healthcare organizations prepare to navigate the next era of digital transformation, Burleson-Davis noted the importance of digital identity in maintaining security, compliance, and usability. He explained that identity has evolved from a security layer to a cornerstone of digital infrastructure.

Identity and access management can enable frictionless workflows, reduce clinician burnout, improve care delivery, and strengthen cyber resilience. Burleson-Davis urged healthcare organizations to develop digital transformation strategies that enhance clinical quality and safety without compromising security. He suggested best practices such as facial biometrics for both provider and patient access, shared mobile programs for clinicians, passwordless authentication and frictionless MFA for shared workstations and devices, third-party access to reduce vendor risk and IT overhead, and user behavior and access analytics to optimize digital systems and identify risks.

Learn how healthcare organizations can simplify secure access with next-generation digital identity solutions.