Technology in Health Care Industry

Healthcare Advancements – Issues and Challenges
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Healthcare Advancements – Issues and Challenges
Introduction
Technological advancement in healthcare has provided a new dimension in the field of patient monitoring as well as research and development domains. This enhancement has dramatically altered the healthcare, personal wellness and insurance perspectives during the last decade. Penetration of smartphone application and new medical technology has brought tremendous opportunity for enhancing longevity and most importantly, quality of life. Nevertheless, this perfect storm has also brought some issues and challenges along with its advents.
The paper will look into different issues and challenges that include the privacy and identity protection of patients. Moreover, it will also look into the enhanced requirement for regulatory actions and overload of information.
Misuse of Information and Data Theft
Surely, there are massive opportunities for harnessing the massive amount of data that is generated as part of the advent. However, insurers should have to take care of boundary that is between needed information and available information. Nevertheless, it allows the insurance companies to assess the case in a much better manner. But it also enhances the responsibilities of insurance companies to safeguard private information and prevent information theft in order to preserve the client’s trust.
Any lapses in the security and privacy of information can lead towards dramatic repercussions on public relations, customer engagement and most importantly, regulatory standpoint.

Hence, the striking a perfect balance between applicants and insurers is one of the most crucial tasks (Callaway & Rozar, 2013).
Security Threats and Healthcare
There are a number of threats to the information privacy of patient. However, it can be categorized into two broader including organizational threats and systemic threats. The organization threats arise from the misuse of the customer’s information as part of inappropriate access of patient’s data by means of internal agents (misusing their authority) and external agents (exploiting the vulnerability of the information systems. The data breach can be classified into five classes in order of their level of sophistication. It includes accidental disclosure, data theft by insider, insider’s curiosity, data theft by outside via physical intrusion and network system’s unauthorized intrusion.
For the systemic threat, it can initiate from an agent who is within the information flow and chain of command and having intentions of disclosing the data beyond its intended usage (Appari, and Johnson, 2010).
Regulatory Action
Development in healthcare and wellness sector has opened doors towards new legislative and regulatory actions. The accuracy of this newly developed medical technology is quite fundamental to the usefulness of the product. Both the consumers (patients) and insurers need the assurance for their devices that they are using are quite effective and safe. Most of the medical devices and equipments are regulated through FDA (Federal Drug Administration); however, the recent advent of healthcare technologies has made these devices quite infeasible to manage. Most of the regulators have responded regarding cyber security and safety concern of implanted devices hacking such as the pacemakers. Moreover, the FDA has also intended to monitor and regulate the products that are quite commonly used for treating and diagnoses of diseases such as the home urinalysis tests (Callaway & Rozar, 2013).
Conclusion
All in all, the evolution of healthcare has brought about different challenges and issues. However, it does not mean that these issues cannot be resolved. Different acts including Fair Credit Reporting Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are being modified for answering the needs of both insurers and patients. Also, the inclusion of information technology experts is also quite important in this domain and can completely eliminate the risks related to internal as well as external intrusions.

References
Appari, A., & Johnson, M. E. (2010). Information security and privacy in healthcare: current state of research. International journal of Internet and enterprise management, 6(4), 279-314.
Callaway, J., & Rozar, T. (2013). Disruptive Advances in Medical Technology: Risks and Opportunities for the Insurance Industry. Global Research & Development Research Bulletin. Retrieved 23 April 2015, from http://www.rgare.com/knowledgecenter/Documents/DisruptiveAdvancesinMedicalTechnology.pdf