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Digital technology has transformed virtually every aspect of healthcare, but even with steady innovation in digital tools and applications, the industry has, for the most part, barely scratched the surface of its high-tech potential. Diagnostic imaging is one exception to this trend. Radiology has embraced digital transformation, which makes secure digital data and image sharing essential to diagnostic integrity and continuity of care.

Digital healthcare: benefits and barriers

Digital healthcare provides many benefits to medical providers and their patients. It offers easy access to a patient’s complete medical history, and fast, easy sharing and consultation with other medical providers. It allows patients to use wearable devices that monitor heart rate, blood sugar, activity levels, and more, giving physicians more data to analyze than a 15-minute office visit can provide. Digital data analytics and artificial intelligence enable better decision-making throughout the patient healthcare journey. Overall, digital healthcare provides an improved patient experience, lower cost, and better outcomes.

But digital healthcare is not without its challenges. According to the National Academy of Medicine, “Despite important gains in the last two decades, made possible by significant investment by payers, providers, and the federal government in electronic health records (EHRs), progress toward interoperable systems, and advanced technology to coordinate care and manage disease, the promise of digital health remains illusory.”

For example, digital healthcare requires:

• Fast, secure, and compliant data and image sharing across the entire medical environment, including hospitals, clinics, and remote/field employees
• Interoperability of applications and platforms (i.e., technology integration)
• Data standardization
• Security and HIPAA compliance
• Diagnostic integrity, which relies on complete, accurate, up-to-date, and consistent data and imagery
• Report with discreet data placed into an electronic medical record

Solving the data sharing dilemma

Gone are the days of sharing files with patients or other providers via CD. Instead, many are opting for a private-key, peer-to-peer system, like TeleRay’s exchange service, that is untethered, unbreachable, and simple to use. The system creates a new key for each instance of data exchange for a highly secure transfer. Health records are stored separately in Microsoft’s Azure cloud, not placed in a central repository. It provides interoperability of applications, and diagnostic integrity. And there’s no need to worry about HIPAA compliance — it’s built in.

The complete picture

Medical imagery from diagnostic testing like a CT, MRI, or PET scan is a vital component in a patient’s complete health picture, offering new dimensions to their written medical chart and history. It provides information about any anatomical or physiological abnormalities, which helps the physician not only diagnose and treat the patient, but also document the patient’s health progression to support future care.

Digital imaging systems allow medical personnel to view, share, and store a patient’s imaging files, but they also create additional security challenges for medical practitioners and privacy concerns for their patients. Image security requires three main characteristics: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. TeleRay provides all three with solutions for fast, secure transmission and storage of medical imaging.

TeleRay is a next-generation radiological image management and collaboration solution. It enables secure access to patient images and supports sharing across the entire spectrum of medical offices, hospitals, and remote workers in all medical disciplines, specialties, and imaging diagnostics.

TeleRay provides full compatibility and compliance with all Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) systems. DICOM is the international standard protocol for the management and sharing of medical images and related data, and is used in many healthcare facilities across the country. DICOM’s goal is to ensure the interoperability of systems that are used to create, display, share, query, store, and print medical images, and manage the related workflows. The TeleRay platform has a built-in DICOM viewer, and TeleRay’s knowledgeable experts have experience with DICOM, Health Level 7 (HL7) protocols, and the clinical environment.

With all that TeleRay has to offer, there are some things it doesn’t have — no on-site server, no contract, and no hidden fees. If you’d like to schedule a demo or talk to one of our experts, give us a call at 844-483-5372.

The digital age offers new and better healthcare options for providers and their patients, but it also creates risk for the security and privacy of protected health information (PHI). The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established regulations for the proper maintenance, sharing, and storage of PHI. How does HIPAA apply in an increasingly digital healthcare environment? What are its implications for telehealth, data sharing, messaging platforms, and other technologies? And how can providers and their business associates ensure compliance while keeping up with the times?

Digital healthcare and HIPAA

Digital healthcare made its first appearance in the early 1990s, when the first healthcare records were digitized to allow easier data access and collaboration, as well as to eliminate data silos. The healthcare industry was slow to embrace the change, but current events forced the issue. The pandemic led to a surge in adoption of digital technologies, such as telehealth and wearable health devices, as well as a significant increase in data.

Alongside these technologies came new security and privacy concerns. Care providers turned to virtual meeting technologies such as Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime to offer continued care when face-to-face interactions were limited. These platforms provide a health engagement channel, but lack more stringent security features, which could put providers and their patients at risk of privacy and security breaches. Also, remote healthcare workers logged in to health networks from unsecured devices and discussed patient information via email and text message. Stored PHI was at risk, as evidenced by the many high-profile data breaches that occurred.

HIPAA compliance has become a leading concern for medical facilities, providers, insurers, and business associates (BAs) of companies that handle patient data. With all these entities involved, it can be difficult to ensure you remain compliant, and the ramifications of noncompliance can be severe.

HIPAA 101

HIPAA was enacted to protect the health information that covered entities (CEs) and their business associates create, maintain, receive, and transmit. CEs are defined as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and all healthcare providers that transmit health information in electronic form. BAs are companies that engage with CEs to help carry out healthcare activities.

HIPAA has three components:

• The Privacy Rule, which establishes standards for the protection of health information
• The Security Rule, which operationalizes the Privacy Rule by outlining the safeguards CEs must put in place to secure PHI
• The Breach Notification Rule, which outlines the actions CEs and BAs need to take after a breach occurs, including notifying the people whose data was compromised and resolving the security breach

But when you delve deeper into HIPAA and compliance concerns, there’s much more CEs and their BAs need to consider. In addition to establishing privacy guidelines and taking measures to ensure the privacy of PHI, CEs must have methods to determine:

• Who is accessing patient information
• What patient information the person is reviewing
• What they are doing with it

This information will enable CEs to enact appropriate restrictions.

HIPAA requires CEs to work only with BAs who ensure protection of PHI. Therefore, CEs and BAs should enter into business associate agreements (BAAs) that include requirements and measures that CEs and BAs need to take to ensure HIPAA compliance. As part of those requirements, CEs and BAs need to keep audit logs and audit trails of system, application, and user activity to mitigate security risks and detect and resolve data breaches. If a BA violates a BAA, the CE must resolve the breach or terminate the BAA.

HIPAA violations can result in penalties for both CEs and BAs. Some examples of HIPAA violations you should be on the lookout for include:

• Sharing protected information with a patient’s family without written consent
• Failing to properly dispose of patient records
• Posting medical facility photos, in which patients are identifiable, on social media
• Discussing a patient where PHI might be overheard

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for enforcing the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Criminal violations are handled by the Department of Justice. Consequences of noncompliance or data breaches can range from significant monetary penalties to criminal prosecution and prison time.

Carefree HIPAA compliance

HIPAA compliance is essential but can be quite complex to master. With a partner like TeleRay, you can rest assured that your team has the right technology and expertise in your corner to remain in compliance. TeleRay’s cutting-edge telehealth and communication platform is HIPAA-compliant and provides secure cloud storage and transmission of PHI and diagnostic imagery, including DICOM images.

The easy-to-implement platform allows face-to-face communication between patients and medical providers at all levels. The platform also provides display capabilities for reports and radiologic imagery that presents a more holistic view of a patient’s health.

With the TeleRay platform taking care of all your telehealth, medical communications, and data storage, your HIPAA compliance can truly be carefree. To learn more, visit TeleRay.com.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, aka HIPAA, establishes standards to safeguard protected health information (PHI). HIPAA regulations ensure and enforce the security and privacy of sensitive PHI used by “covered entities” within the healthcare industry. Covered entities include medical facilities, independent providers, pharmacies, labs, insurers, and related personnel.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HIPAA requires covered entities to:

• Ensure PHI confidentiality, integrity, and availability for all records they create, receive, maintain, or transmit.
• Protect PHI from security and/or integrity risk.
• Protect PHI from unauthorized use or disclosure.
• Ensure associated workforce compliance.

These regulations may seem daunting, but the penalties for failing to maintain HIPAA compliance are potentially severe. Opt for carefree compliance by partnering with a secure medical data sharing platform. Learn more at teleray.com.