Problem, Requirement, and Limitation
WestLake Research Hospital’s main challenge is data privacy and an improved information system for data storage to maintain research validity and security. The research takes 18 months, which is a long time requiring accurate data recording. The case highlights that currently only the two supervisors can access all the patient data and medical reviews (Conger, 2014). The system cannot be considered entirely secure as it can be breached or accessed by other healthcare professionals who may expose the information to external parties. The proposed system is ideal for the research as it creates profiles for study participants without information manipulation, which can affect the validity of the findings given study’s long duration and sample decrease vulnerabilities.
The main business requirements for Westlake as emerging from the above challenges include system security and a data backup plan. The doctors also need a digital file storage system based on Job Shadow Report. The system should link key words and terms to diagnosis or progress. The organization also needs to educate the two supervisors on secure internet usage at the hospital, such as strong passwords, regular updates, securing the router, installing a proper data back-up system, encrypted transmission, and continuous auditing among others (Yu et al., 2018). Information is the most essential aspect of the project, and it is the target of malicious operations. Therefore, the organization needs a training system to educate the supervisors about the consequences of data breaching for the project. For instance, access to the data will make the findings unreliable as patients may learn about the intervention mechanism, and behave differently. The security measures are aimed at preventing other healthcare workers and external competitors interested in the drug findings from accessing the patient data and progress.
The main limitation of the hospital is the lack of a good software system to ensure the safety of the patient data from breaching. The limitation is contributed by the duration of the study, which makes it challenging for the organisation to fund or provide the needed system to secure the patient data. In particular, the study aims at testing the efficiency of the new depression drug against a conventional drug type. Since this is a clinical research, there is a need for accurate data to ensure that the findings match both literature and the primary research findings to make accurate recommendations.
Impact of Problem on Departments and Organizations
The illustrated problems within the hospital include data privacy and the lack of an improved IT system for patient details storage and retrieval. Information privacy affects various departments within a healthcare environment, such as the IT system, the doctors, the patients, pharmacists, as well as the financial system of the organization (Maia et al., 2020). The IT system suffers from loss of important site surveillance and maintenance codes, which may expose patient records leading to privacy concerns. Doctors are mostly affected by the lack of a patient file storage system, which makes patient information recording cumbersome. Physical files are vulnerable to damage, loss, and even access by unwanted parties (Maia et al., 2020). Pharmacists are also affected by a lack of a swift IT system to record and store information regarding patient medication. Overall, records security and the implementation of efficient digital working systems affect various healthcare departments.
The proposed system has a capability to host different profiles and information in a system. Therefore, it can provide a workable and secure system for each research stakeholder to store and retrieve information for precise research findings. The nature of the study requires various valid details from all the study participants, to which failure might impact the study outcome, which can be detrimental if wrong recommendations are provided at the end of the research. The proposed system design is appropriate as it can allow different profiles and continuous improvement and feeding of information into the system to allow correct details recording, storage, and retrieval.
In conclusion, it is apparent that the type of research creates a significant limitation for the study. In particular, the research duration took 18 months implying a need for accurate progress record to achieve the assessment purpose. In other words, the investigation is vulnerable to subject drop out data breaching by external interested parties who will, in turn, use the findings for financial gains including selling the new drug to patients with depression. Another limitation of the study is the possibility of information damage if the research supervisors do not employ appropriate information saving or retrieval systems to avoid data loss. There is a need for the organisation to implement the proposed system to create multiple profiles within one system for all the study participants including patients, the doctors, and the supervisors. Equally, the system designers and developers should educate the users on safe website usage to avoid stealing of records from external parties or to avoid data loss through deletion or virus infection. In this way, the research supervisors can ensure that the investigation meets its goals through providing accurate data regardless of the inconsistent sample throughout the research.
References
Conger, S. (2014). Case study scenarios from hands-on database. (2nd ed.) Prentice Hall.
Maia, E., Praça, I., Mantzana, V., Gkotsis, I., Petrucci, P., Biasin, E., Kamenjasevic, E. & Lammari. N. (2020). Security challenges for the critical infrastructures of the healthcare sector. Web.
Yu, S., Wang, G., Liu, X., & Niu, J. (2018). Security and privacy in the age of the smart internet of things: An overview from a networking perspective. IEEE Communications Magazine, 56(9), 14-18. Web.