Data Breaches: A Growing Problem for the Healthcare Community

The electronic exchange of health information is improving patient care and safety while providing increased efficiencies for hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. A young girl in California can be diagnosed with a rare type of cancer and, within hours, the experts at Dana-Farber in Boston are developing her aggressive treatment regimen. Also, while the pros of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and online Healthcare Portals greatly outweigh the cons, their introduction comes at a price — an increased risk of both accidental and intentional data loss.