The Rise of Technology in Healthcare Information Management
The effectiveness of the modern healthcare sector depends on the ability to exchange information and address complex situations using the latest research data. For this reason, health informatics is becoming a fundamental element of healthcare. The recent public health crisis caused by COVID-19 demonstrated the need for safe, effective, and evidence-based integration of digital health into the work of health systems globally (Fernandez-Luque et al., 2020). The recent challenges established a unique opportunity to create quality data coming from various sources and discussed at the international level (Fernandez-Luque et al., 2020). This framework’s creation will generate numerous benefits; however, it also increases the topicality of the security breach issues.
Thus, following the existing national guidelines, all client information should be protected and cannot be shared with third parties. This means that the breach of data might result in numerous ethical and financial problems. For instance, MCNA Dental, a provider of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program service, suffered from a critical healthcare data breach affecting around 9 million individuals (Rodriguez, 2023).
Case Study: A Current Example of a Health Data Breach
The incident resulted in severe financial and reputational losses as private information was disclosed. For nurses and the nursing profession, the possibility of a data breach makes aligning the contact with the patient more difficult. The patients might be afraid of sharing sensitive data because of the fear of its disclosure. The accidents of this sort and the problems they introduce for nurses demonstrate the necessity of adequate security measures.
In such a way, healthcare information is a valuable asset of the modern world. It is critical for evidence-based practice as it might promote research and align international cooperation on a particular aspect. At the same time, it makes individuals vulnerable and makes the problem of security more topical. Today, nurses should be taught to use new systems and, more importantly, how to protect data and guarantee they do not threaten the existing systems or their clients.
References
Fernandez-Luque, L., Kushniruk, A. W., Georgiou, A., Basu, A., Petersen, C., Ronquillo, C., Paton, C., Nøhr, C., Kuziemsky, C. E., Alhuwail, D., Skiba, D., Huesing, E., Gabarron, E., Borycki, E. M., Magrabi, F., Denecke, K., Peute, L. W. P., Topaz, M., Al-Shorbaji, N., Lacroix, P., … Zhu, X. (2020). Evidence-based health informatics as the foundation for the COVID-19 response: A joint call for action. Methods of Information in Medicine, 59(6), 183–192. Web.
Rodriguez, S. (2023). MCNA notifies 8.9M individuals of healthcare data breach. Health ITSecurity. Web.