Usage of telemedicine grew exponentially during the pandemic, as doctors moved from in-person to virtual consult to halt the spread of Covid-19. Frost and Sullivan predicts that telemedicine will see a 64.3 percent increase in 2021 and this is likely to increase in the coming years, even as the world slowly recovers from the pandemic. Telemedicine will definitely be part of our new normal.
Over the past few months we’ve seen a lot of success stories about telemedicine, such as a telemedicine robot saving the life of a stroke patient, or how seriously ill children are able to get remote neonatal intensive care. However, beyond the wins of telemedicine, it also makes sense not to sacrifice privacy, security, and regulatory compliance as we make great strides in this area.
Privacy is one of the biggest issues in telemedicine, with patients and medical providers expressing concern about the privacy of their communications and how their data is handled. Telemedicine providers must review their practices for collecting, transmitting, and storing patient data and communications, and take steps to comply with government regulatory requirements, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) in the United States.
Even as medical providers strive to keep up with huge patient demand and strict, constantly evolving regulations, newer issues continue to come up.
- Remote access. Like many other industries, healthcare organizations have also incorporated remote work. With this new development, not only do employees need training for telemedicine, they also need to be educated on the challenges of remote work and learn about security best practices. Moreover, companies should ensure they have steady IT support to handle requests.
- Personal device usage. Not all healthcare companies provide their staff with corporate devices, and allowing employees to use their personal gadgets to access critical systems poses a huge security risk.
- Privacy of communication. With lines between work and home now blurred, it is even more important that workspaces be designed to ensure that privacy is maximized and the possibility of snooping or eavesdropping on private medical conversations is lessened.
- End-to-end encryption. This type of technology ensures that data is not intercepted or modified while it is relayed between the sender and the recipient or altered while it is stored. As healthcare workers provide telemedicine services from home or their workplaces, end-to-end encryption is a necessary investment to ensure security.
As we move across a new normal and relearn new ways of doing things, it’s even more important that healthcare organizations learn to navigate this strange new world of telemedicine.
If you’re looking to set up and finetune your telemedicine operations, Wingspan has solid experience in business process outsourcing and can help smooth out the process for you. Email us to understand how you can improve your telemedicine delivery.