So many accounts, so many passwords… EHR data needs to be secure but what is poor grandma to do?

In today’s world, every one of us is fraught with a multitude of user accounts for access to our data for daily lives. With every account from banking, credit cards, Facebook, Twitter, email, and more, all requiring different credentials and passwords for access, even the most technology savvy user is challenged to remember the access credentials and at the same time utilize passwords that are complex enough to keep the appropriate level of security. Unfortunately, that leaves a large majority of people who are not technology savvy with the task of wrangling with the account access quagmire and they will most often create very simplistic passwords that are repeated across all those accounts because that is all that they can remember.

The challenge of making sensitive information freely available to those that own it or should have access to it while securing it “for their eyes only” is not a new issue and in fact has long been a challenge in the IT world and it will only get worse. As the requirement for access to data spread across a vast multiplicity of vendors and systems continues to permeate into every part of our lives, uneducated users are tasked with the challenge of how to keep their data secured properly so that they do not fall victim to malicious security attacks. My mind runs wild with concern about how organized crime is currently and will forever exploit the use of our data in surprising ways.

Healthcare reform is dictating the requirement for new and innovative ways to deliver healthcare services and to allow physicians and their patients to interact. This is all a beautiful vision and absolutely necessary in order to transcend beyond the traditional approaches in healthcare that are primarily focused on treating the sick rather than more focus on preventing sickness. True reform is absolutely necessary to improve the quality of care while working towards the equally important goal of reducing healthcare costs and the only way to reach these goals will be to introduce innovative technology solutions that will allow patients and physicians to leverage new applications and methods of accessing data and communication that facility a new and wonderful world of healthcare. But how will those who manage healthcare information technology make these new applications and interfaces easy to use for those who are not technology savvy and not aware of the dangers and risks of failing to secure their data properly?

Let’s fast forward to a world where we are probably headed whether we like it or not. In this vision of the future, physicians will work with many of their patients through virtual interactions and possibly using a network of care that may require prescribing medical care significantly different than how things are done today. With a new and much needed push towards proactive medicine versus reactive medicine, the healthcare system has come up with new ways to incentivize physicians to help their patients with a more proactive plan for maintaining their health. Through use of wearable technology medical devices, prescribed physical trainers and dieticians and other services, physicians may be highly motivated by financial incentives to keep their patients healthy rather than to get them healthy after they have become ill. The future reality may even look so different that doctors make the majority of their income on keeping their patients healthy rather than helping them to get healthy much like today’s reality is. As much as this world appears very bright, there may be a very dark and sinister cloud lurking and waiting to take advantage of this “reformed” approach to medicine. Possibly things have advanced to the point that some physicians and healthcare organizations have figured out how to exploit the system by buying information that helps them filter out the individuals that are less healthy so that they can maintain a list of patients that are more healthy and profitable. Certainly the future world is unpredictable but one thing that can be guaranteed is that there will always be some criminal element working to exploit the use of someone else’s personal sensitive data. This will most certainly be ever more problematic with users that cannot remember or keep track of multiple user accounts and multiple passwords and are also not educated to understand the best ways to keep their data and personal sensitive information secure

As the government works to enforce benchmark milestones for healthcare reform, we in healthcare IT management are already “behind the eight ball” when it comes to creating solutions that are user friendly for patients yet keep them securely protected from their own ignorance waiting to be exploited by the ever lurking evil predators. We must identify new solutions that would help individuals to keep their data secured beyond their EHR with newly developed access protocols that could work across all systems including banking and financial systems, social media, communication tools, and beyond. Instead of forcing grandma to keep track of so many accounts, (all of which she has secured by using the name of her dog) there should be new solutions that allow her to make use of a single account that works across multiple systems with a high complex password. It goes without saying the requirement for education that would play a large role to help her to use technology and security properly to make sure she stays protected. We must reach beyond the limits we have now to consumers and incorporate other authentication technology that exists today and maybe some that has not been created yet. Government, banking, healthcare, and technology industries will have to come together to develop better solutions to help users to manage and keep their data accessible yet secure in a way that all will be able to benefit including the technology challenged individuals.

The road less traveled — Rise above the bog of a mediocre life!

A good friend shared this with me and I thought others might like it too:

You have to do the hard things.

•You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
•You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
•You have to give more than you get in return right away.
•You have to care more about others than they care about you.
•You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.
•You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.
•You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.
•You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.
•You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.
•You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.
•You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.
•You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”
•You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.
•You have to try, fail and try again.
•You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.
•You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.
•You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.
•You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.
•You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.

You have to do the hard things. The things that no one else is doing. The things that scare you. The things that make you wonder how much longer you can hold on.

Those are the things that define you. Those are the things that make the difference between living a life of mediocrity or outrageous success.

The hard things are the easiest things to avoid. To excuse away. To pretend like they don’t apply to you.

The simple truth about how ordinary people accomplish outrageous feats of success is that they do the hard things that smarter, wealthier, more qualified people don’t have the courage — or desperation — to do.

Do the hard things. You might be surprised at how amazing you really are.

Just a little taste!

Welcome to my new blog post.  If you are reading this then there is something that you found interesting about my bio or my blog topic, however you will quickly realize that I am an uneducated blogger with very little experience in the protocols of the experienced bloggers.  In fact, you may find my writing skills to be lacking in the eloquence and finesse that should be found to cover the topics that I am going to attempt to cover.  Developing more of a “soft hand and a smooth touch” in my writing will come, however what is most important to me is the mission to inspire thought and the hope to insight quality conversation about smarter information technology initiatives in the healthcare industry.

Since my background in IT has largely been focused on IT Infrastructure, many of my topics will be focused in the area of security, device management, application presentation, identity and access management, and infrastructure cost management, but I do not want to limit my blog to these topics and will continually encourage discussion in other areas of healthcare technology and innovative trends.

Look for a series of articles coming on patient data access and security – “Grandma’s got too many passwords to remember!”, and healthcare IT cost management – “Why does it cost so much but deliver so little?”  I hope that you will check back and contribute so that we can all discuss ways to smarter healthcare IT.