Comments on Mobile Security Sought
Roundtable on the Issue Also PlannedAs part of its ongoing effort to identify privacy and security best practices for the use of mobile devices in healthcare, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is soliciting comments on the issue through March 30.
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The office, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, has posted on its website a number of questions for commenters to consider.
Those questions include:
- What privacy and security issues, challenges, and/or concerns do providers face when using mobile devices in their work lives to store, transmit or access health information?
- Which privacy and security practices, strategies and technologies are providers using to safeguard health information stored, transmitted or accessed by mobile devices? Which of these have been most effective?
- What information do providers need to assist them in their understanding of how to safeguard health information stored, transmitted or accessed by mobile devices?
Roundtable Planned
ONC also is hosting a half-day roundtable discussion March 16 on mobile device privacy and security issues. Details about the event, which is available as a webcast, are on the ONC website.
One panel discussion at the roundtable, "Real World Mobile Devices Privacy & Security Practices, Strategies and Technologies," features speakers from a number of provider organizations, including Sharon Finney, corporate security officer at Adventist Health System, and Terrell Herzig, information security officer at UAB Health System. Finney and Herzig are both members of HealthcareInfoSecurity's board of advisers.
As part of the best practices effort, ONC plans to offer videos, tip sheets and other guidance on security for mobile devices by the end of this year (see: Mobile Security: Help is on the Way.)