AUSTIN, TX – With the nation’s gradual move toward electronic health records comes an increased risk of lost or stolen healthcare data. And while federal entities like the Health IT Standards Committee are moving to tighten security and privacy standards, healthcare providers need to know there are steps they can take to protect their digital medical records.

Bill Hunka, director of business development alliances and ecosystems for Absolute Software, says healthcare providers need to act aggressively to protect digital data – especially as more of that data makes its way into mobile applications or workstations.

“Encryption is already a mandate, but there’s a lot more that needs to be considered,” he said. “You need layers of security. We see reports, literally, every day of things getting written down in notebooks or laptops left in cars. … We’ve heard some very interesting and very sensitive cases.”

On Sept. 15, the Health IT Standards Committee endorsed a set of security and privacy standards for EHR systems that it said would get progressively tougher without holding back wider information sharing. Those standards come in the wake of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which includes financial incentives for healthcare providers who invest in technology.

“The ARRA creates significant new requirements for healthcare organizations to proactively manage the security of digital patient information,” said Scott Lundstrom, vice president of research for Health Industry Insights.

“Electronic medical record implementations will be held to strict standards designed to protect the privacy of individual medical records. Meeting the standards will be a challenge – the dynamic nature of healthcare coupled with the move to mobile computing platforms makes the proper security of patient information especially difficult.”

“Securing patient data should be a priority among healthcare organizations,” said Brad Myrvold, manager of desktop technology for Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a Minneapolis-based network that serves Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina is a client of Absolute Software.

“When electronic protected health information records are compromised, hospital systems lose the trust of current, past and prospective patients,” Myrvold said.