Healthcare IT

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  Healthcare IT, or healthcare information technology, refers broadly to the collection of technological tools and devices that make modern medicine possible. It covers all the computers, networks, storage devices, software, databases, and underlying infrastructure that make it possible for physicians, nurses, patients, government bodies, and insurance providers to work with, share, and make decisions together about healthcare. 

Why Is Healthcare IT Important?

IT in healthcare is critical because hospitals, clinics, and other organizations essentially run on data. IT infrastructure is what allows these organizations to collect and manage that data, and use it to make accurate diagnoses, determine treatment plans, and achieve positive outcomes for patients. 

Technology itself is revolutionizing healthcare. The entire industry is undergoing a journey of digital transformation, moving toward connected systems that accelerate and refine the ways caregivers and patients share and use information. 

Healthcare data and its use are so important that in 2009, a federal law was created to incentivize and motivate healthcare organizations in their digital transformation. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) earmarked billions of dollars in federal funding to “promote and expand the adoption of health information technology,” starting with electronic health records (EHRs). 

Along with providing incentives for healthcare providers and insurance carriers to digitize health information and increase access, the HITECH Act also came with legal requirements and expectations surrounding the storage, sharing, and use of data. That’s because any time data is digitized and becomes more readily available to more people, risks of security breaches also increase. 

Healthcare data, which includes highly personal and confidential patient information, is an incredibly valuable prize for hackers and other bad actors. In fact, healthcare cybersecurity breaches hit an all-time high last year, according to a recent article. Sensitive data on 45 million patients was illegally accessed in 2021, up from 34 million in 2020. In 2018, 14 million people were affected—so it’s clear that the problem is growing at an alarming rate.