It’s essential for healthcare administrators and decision makers to understand the concepts such as “the internet,” and how data is transferred both internally and externally?
It is 2019, and the internet has been publicly available since 1991. It is no longer a new technology used by early adaptors. The internet touches most activities we are reliant on today from receiving emails and files to video chat calls and getting directions. That said only a few understand how the internet works and rest has bits and pieces of knowledge. For most, the internet is just something that is always there. And for digital natives, the idea of having all the information in the world at their fingertips is natural, unlike other generations where a smartphone or the internet was sci-fi seen in the movies or on Star Trek.
Knowledge Gap
The knowledge gap exists at all levels of the organization. Should there be a knowledge gap after twenty-five plus years? Of course not. Why is it the case? Perhaps because it isn’t tangible or it is there (waves hands up in the air.) If you don’t have a basic understanding of something that plays such a huge role in your life and the lives of others, it is dangerous. It is crucial that administrators and policymakers have a basic working knowledge of how the Internet works, what is data, how data is sent/received, and what are the risks. Without this fundamental understanding, they cannot make informed choices on the health and safety of others as in data protection and investment of resources.
Technology moves faster than guidelines and laws leaving uninformed policymakers and administrators playing catch-up. It is not sufficient that cyber risk and other technology matters fall just on the IT department. The cyber threat is an organizational-wide concern where key departments need to be involved in creating and implementing data security policies for a wide-spread buy-in.
As we become more dependent on all things digital to share and get information, cyber risk has come out of the server rooms and into the boardrooms.
Invest in understanding technology and your HIPPA risks due to hacking. We can help. Let’s set-up a conversation.
