To meet federal requirements, medical practices are facing increased demands for electronic record keeping. Busy gynecology practices, which create and collect many ultrasound images, must adopt file storage solutions that comply with HIPAA regulations for privacy and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations for billing.
Many practices are turning to cloud storage solutions to meet this challenge. With cloud technology, practitioners can pay for only the amount of storage space they require and can upgrade as needed. Additionally, cloud solutions enable physicians to securely access patient records from multiple locations without the often prohibitive cost of an IT infrastructure. Solutions such as Tricefy (TM) make ultrasound image storage efficient, accessible, safe and compliant. But cloud security can be a concern for any business that entrusts its data to a third party for storage.
Is the Cloud Really Safe?
The New York Times likened cloud security to a bank, postulating that your money is safer in a bank than at your house. After all, the bank hosts many other people's money, too, and is protected by security experts. If an individual loses or misplaces his or her money, it is most likely his or her own fault. If a bank loses a customer's money, however, the bank is to blame. For that reason, financial institutions pay special attention to their security practices, both in their buildings and online. The same goes for cloud storage providers.
A business's cloud is generally located on a large server or multiple servers, which can be spread throughout a region or even a country depending on the size of the business. It is not the same thing as an online backup, since cloud data resides on the remote servers themselves and not on local machines.
Programmers are always looking for the next best solution for data security and are learning ways to protect information from data thieves. Many high-profile cloud security breaches were not cloud breaches at all — they were due to lack of point-of-use safeguards, such as two-factor authentication and encryption, and lax network security protocols.
Medical Information Needs Extra Protection
Federal regulations require cloud services that store patient information to be HIPAA-compliant. Companies that hold medical information for practices must be contracted as "business associates" and comply with the federal regulations for data privacy and security. Data held in the cloud needs to be encrypted while it is not being used, while it is at rest and when it is being accessed or transferred. Cloud services must also create a user log audit trail to track and document how patient information is accessed and by whom.
What Is a Medical Practice's Role in Cloud Security?
Practices that decide to use a cloud storage solution for image management still need to ensure that their employees are properly trained. Staff members must be aware of what causes data breaches and ensure that the devices they use are protected, since a lost or stolen smartphone or computer could provide access to cloud data. Phones that can be used to access data should be encrypted and locked with a password access code and computers should be guarded by strong passwords. Practices should review their network security and provide appropriate levels of access to anyone who is able to connect to the network.
Image storage solutions that utilize the cloud can allow for increased efficiency, the ability to share data automatically with the appropriate medical record, and, as a result, lower the risk of user error because these tasks are done automatically.
To be sure, storing sensitive data in the cloud is never without zero risk. But as long as your practice chooses the right provider and empowers its workforce with the knowledge to safeguard data at the individual level, worries about cloud security will be an afterthought.
