Health care is an important proponent of a well-developed system of maintaining the welfare of individuals/group/genre in any type country of country or state. There are organizations and rules and directives amended to benefit the general health of the public. However, sometimes, it cannot be helped that there are negative implications of the said rules on the technology of the healthcare and services.
In the HIPAA privacy/security/enforcement text of August 2003, two sublaws indicate that the rulings may be of “import” to the healthcare technology: Subpart C (Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information) and Subpart E (Privacy of the Individually Identifiable Health Information). In Subpart E 164. 104, there are regulations regarding the transmission of any information or transactions concerning health services and care mediated by any electronic form (e.g. computer softwares).
In the rule, a right is bestowed to any citizens’s health record and provisions and rights are constructed regarding the non-sharing of medical records in any electronic forms of a citizen without his/her consent. Discretion, even in the highly accessed technological records, is absolutely pushed. In Subpart C security standards are imposed with regards to the malleability of the computer software programs handling the health documents (e.
g. protection against damage-inducing viruses), assurances regading maintenance of privacy of the health records and their integrity (e. g. prevent tampering of records). In the aforementioned directives, there is possible critical risk of “tampering” and “sharing” of the said documents and encrypted data regarding health. Although there are software programs today that combats this (e. g.
anti-spyware, antivirus), there is no assurance that there is a hundred percent protection against computer hackers. It is highly recommended that there is back-up or antiquated paper documentation so that there is always point of referral.
Reference
US Department of Health Services Office for Civil Rights. (2000, Dec 28). Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information. Retrieved Dec 6, 2007, from http://www. hipaadvisory. com.