Dive Brief:
- A recent survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) of 297 health IT execs showed that two-thirds had a "significant" data security breach this past year, but 62% of responders said their breaches had limited impact on patient care or IT operations.
- Medical identity theft was the main factor motivating security threats; the second was staff improperly accessing patient records and third was financial identity theft, according to those participating in the survey.
- Top barriers to lessening security breaches include lack of appropriate cybersecurity personnel and financial resources. Forty-two percent of responders believed there are "too many emerging and new threats to track," according to a HIMSS statement.
Dive Insight:
The survey stated that "most respondents indicated that security tools currently available to them are insufficient to protect us against the security threats and vulnerabilities their organizations will face today and in the future."
Lisa Gallagher, vice president for technology solutions for HIMSS said that "the recent breaches in the healthcare industry have been a wake-up call that patient and other data are valuable targets and healthcare organizations need a laser focus on cybersecurity threats." (Think: Anthem's breach involving as many as 80 million records and Community Health Systems' breach that involved 4.5 million people).