Madrid, 18th January 2023 – The necessary digital transformation of the healthcare sector poses several challenges. It has traditionally been a laggard industry in terms of digitalization, but new and unstoppable trends, driven by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, have made the digitalization of medical services no longer an option, but an imperative. Healthcare companies must catch up as new and innovative players enter the market.
The trends that are shaping the healthcare sector have to do with both digitalization and changes in the environment itself. Digital trends include the emergence of new online players, the increase in big data capabilities and the greater importance of digital and multichannel strategies. In addition, the environment is seeing a shift in focus towards prevention, the evident aging of the population, the increase in chronic diseases and the rise in healthcare spending and wellness policies.
All these trends have put the focus on patients, who take center stage throughout the entire healthcare process. Digitalization is also a challenge for the patients, who must adapt to a new environment with new processes, tools, and channels. The patient’sjourney could be divided into six phases: education and prevention, appointment booking, diagnosis and tests, treatment, follow-up, and payment.
Patients take better care of themselves, try to lead a healthier lifestyle, and look for information on the Internet and specific portals on nutrition and sports. When they identify a symptom, they make an appointment with a healthcare practitioner of their choice after reading reviews and ratings on specific physicians’ platforms or websites where they have access to the appointment schedule.
Thanks to interactive telemedicine, doctors assess the situation by video calls and report the results of the tests ordered. During treatment, patients receive electronic prescriptions and order medications from online pharmacies, which they receive conveniently at home. Doctors can also discharge patients telematically and refer them to other specialists.
To track their health, patients have at their disposal smart digital tools that also send them reminders and alerts. Finally, they can pay the cost of diagnostic tests and treatment over the Internet, either by direct payment or through their private insurer. In short, there have been many changes in a very short time.
But those who have changed the most have been patients, and this in turn poses significant challenges for healthcare companies. Especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and “taught” by large online retailers such as Amazon, today’s patients expect healthcare companies to match their individual preferences and needs.
Expectations are ambitious, as patients expect to have ubiquitous and immediate access to all services, easily get the product they want at any time, find customized and relevant content, and engage closely with healthcare providers. They also expect to interact with influencers, bloggers, and industry brands, and learn how and where products are made.
And all this means that a huge amount of patient data has to be managed. This implies that the great challenge of the digitalization of the healthcare sector entails another no less important one: the security and privacy of personal data.
Nowadays, confidential and sensitive patient data travels through the network at full speed and, on its way, can run into the long hands of cybercriminals. That is why legislation has been tightened and new laws and regulations have been enacted, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to protect the information of patients, users and healthcare workers where there are greater risks. For example:
- The wristbands worn by some patients handle personal information such as weight, height or calories consumed.
- Personalized and preventive medicine requires the collection of sensitive data for research purposes.
- Health applications manage the entire medical history of patients from their cell phones, where they can find out if they need to take insulin at a certain time or if they are due for a check-up for a chronic pathology.
- Teleconsultation services allow remote management of the entire patient journey, including audio and video.
In addition, as if that were not enough, the GDPR introduces a new element with highly sensitive information: informed consent. Verbal or implied consent is no longer enough; consent must be immediate and in writing, which substantially increases the number of documents with confidential data. Medical records, prescriptions, test results, notifications… everything is important, and everything must be stored and classified. Access and processing permissions must also be established. And when this process is not seamless, cybercriminals take advantage of it, knowing the importance and value of this data.
This data that patients provide in their healthcare interactions becomes a treasure for hackers. In fact, the healthcare sector received the most cyberattacks last year. So, if we are aware of all this, why does it keep happening?
- Because industry companies use outdated software solutions
- employees do not have the necessary skills to protect the data
- and, in addition, as more and more data becomes available, the size of the target has become larger, and it is easier to hit the target and steal valuable data.
We must protect ourselves as much as possible and dedicate efforts and resources to ensure security during the identification, encryption, storage, access, authentication, traceability and exchange of data. On the black market, a medical record is worth as much or more than the data on a bank card.
Healthcare companies that make a clear commitment to cybersecurity and invest heavily in this area will undoubtedly be able to position themselves as leaders in the future and avoid serious fines for non-compliance with the increasingly stringent and numerous national and European data protection regulations.
There is no such thing as zero risk, but it is in the interest of healthcare companies to rely on advanced software solutions that guarantee the security of documents and information, reliably manage access rights, ensure the traceability of documents and, in short, enable them to successfully deal with online threats.
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