TASK 2: write a reply

The development of information technology (IT) has rapidly changed the world in the last three decades. It has transformed the life and existence of people and businesses. Nowadays, every segment of individuals’ personal and professional life involves the usage of IT from meeting basic personal needs, such as purchasing food, through maintaining social life to working life that includes wide range of IT utilization such as completing basic computer tasks or managing data and digital databases. With the rapid and explosive internet and mobile computing growth, the transfer and communication of healthcare data is easier then ever and it enables participants to use applications that are designed for monitoring patients through wearable devices, manage healthcare service appointments and access to multiple healthcare data (Iyengar et al, 2018). Patients can produce enormous accessible data from using imaging services through blood test results to personalised treatments (Thimbleby, 2013) that increases the concern of privacy and security regarding to patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare providers equally (Iyengar et al, 2018). Any data, which can link to the patient’s identity, is classified as protected health information that is regulated by EU General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR). However, genomic data, which is also great identificatory, is not yet recognised by GDPR (Iyengar et al, 2018). Breach in protecting and secure protected health data can occur due to lack of encryption that makes the data vulnerable and accessible for hackers (Iyengar et al, 2018).

Reference

Iyengar, A. et al. (2018) Healthcare Informatics and Privacy. IEEE internet computing. [Online] 22 (2), 29–31. Thimbleby H. (2013). Technology and the future of healthcare. Journal of public health research, 2(3), e28. https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2013.e28.