NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

Name

Capella university

NHS FPX 4000 Developing a Health Care Perspective

Prof. Name

Date

Applying Research Skills

Healthcare cybersecurity is a critical issue with technological advancements characterized by the vulnerability of medical data to cyberattacks and breaches. The risk of unauthorized access and data theft has escalated with the increasing digitization of healthcare systems and the electronic shortage of sensitive patient information. The data breaches result in financial implications, causing a financial burden on patients and healthcare systems. A single data breach incurs about $8.19 million on healthcare systems (Seh et al., 2020).

Moreover, data breaches from 2005-2019 have impacted about 249.09 million hospital patients (Seh et al., 2020). These statistical data show the professional relevance of healthcare data breaches and cybersecurity and the need to safeguard patient privacy and ensure medical data’s integrity while using HIT. During my clinical practice, I encountered a data breach experience with one of my patients when there were inadequate cybersecurity measures within the organization’s EHR. This resulted in external data breaches and substantial financial implications. Moreover, this incident also eroded patients’ trust in healthcare and HIT integration within the hospital.

Application of Academic Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

The four chosen articles from peer-reviewed journals are researched thoroughly based on their relevance to the healthcare issue of technological advancements and associated challenges. The databases used for research included Google Scholar, BMC Medicine, CINAHL, and PubMed. All these articles address the problems of cyberattacks, data breaches, and obstacles that hinder the integration of HIT within the healthcare system.

The selected peer-reviewed journal articles thoroughly explore the interventions, including cybersecurity measures, training programs to prevent data breaches, and a proactive approach to cybersecurity. All these articles are relevant to issues associated with HIT integration as they address the concerns of data breaches and cybercrimes with proactive recommendations. Therefore, all these articles are valuable for addressing the growing issue of evolving digital health technologies (Argaw et al., 2020; Bhuyan et al., 2020; He et al., 2020; Semantha et al., 2020).

Assessing the Credibility of Information

The CRAAP criteria are considered while selecting the four chosen journal articles. The CRAAP criteria show evidence-based resources’ Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (Muis et al., 2022). The keywords used to research technological advancements included “Cybersecurity,” “Telemedicine,” “Data breaches,” “Electronic Health Records,” and “Challenges of HIT in healthcare.” Moreover, the articles are extracted from peer-reviewed journals, enhancing the credibility of each evidence-based resource.

All four selected peer-reviewed articles were published in 2020, showing their currency and credibility (Argaw et al., 2020; Bhuyan et al., 2020; He et al., 2020; Semantha et al., 2020). Furthermore, the information explored through these articles is relevant to the healthcare issue that needs to be solved in this paper. All articles cover data breaches, cybersecurity measures, necessary interventions, and recommendations to prevent the risk of data theft with HIT use in hospitals. Based on these reasons, the articles are carefully chosen to fulfill the requirement of addressing the current healthcare issue highlighted in this assessment.

Annotated Bibliography

Argaw, S. T., Troncoso-Pastoriza, J. R., Lacey, D., Florin, M.-V., Calcavecchia, F., Anderson, D., Burleson, W., Vogel, J.-M., O’Leary, C., Eshaya-Chauvin, B., & Flahault, A. (2020). Cybersecurity of hospitals: Discussing the challenges and working towards mitigating the risks. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01161-7

The article by Argaw et al. (2020) aims to discuss the cybersecurity measures and cybercrimes that various health information systems are vulnerable to. This resource seeks to shed light on cybersecurity measures and interventions to safeguard patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) and ensure the smooth workflow of healthcare organizations. The article first discusses the challenges associated with cyberattacks, such as threats to patients’ identity, financial implications, impeded hospital workflows, and increased risk to patients’ well-being. Several case examples of data breaches have been discussed in the article, including financial ransomware attacks and permanently corrupting the backup files of emergency IT data.

As a result, hackers demanded $55,000 as ransom, which the hospital had to pay. The interventions suggested by this article include a risk-based approach where vulnerabilities are identified and managed and cybersecurity training programs for all end users of technological devices in healthcare. Due to these suggestions and measures provided, this article is included in this research analysis on the issue of technological drawbacks in healthcare. The article concludes that cybersecurity is essential for patients’ well-being and hospitals using HIT.

NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

Bhuyan, S. S., Kabir, U. Y., Escareno, J. M., Ector, K., Palakodeti, S., Wyant, D., Kumar, S., Levy, M., Kedia, S., Dasgupta, D., & Dobalian, A. (2020). Transforming healthcare cybersecurity from reactive to proactive: Current status and future recommendations. Journal of Medical Systems, 44(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1507-y

This article by Bhuyan et al. (2020) highlights the need for a proactive approach to prevent data pilferage and enhance cybersecurity. The authors discuss the various types of cyberattacks, including viruses, worms, ransomware, phishing, privilege escalation, etc. Further, the article delves into the influence of multiple players in cybersecurity that jeopardize or improve the safety of health information in hospitals. Lastly, the authors recommend interventions to prevent cybercrimes by enacting privacy policies such as HIPAA regulations and patient-oriented grant approvals to access patients’ health data.

NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

Moreover, it is suggested to employ risk management techniques and a six-action plan by the American Hospital Association (AHA). The plan includes response and action plans. The response plan includes establishing procedures and teams for cybersecurity and performing the plan. The action plan comprises examining medical devices following FDA guidelines, collaborating with organizations promoting information sharing to reduce hospital cyberattack risks, and ensuring that insurance covers data theft and breaches. This article is included due to its comprehensive analysis of cybersecurity and interventions suggested to manage cybercrimes. The article emphasizes proactive approaches to prevent data breaches and ameliorate cybersecurity.

He, W., Zhang, J., & Li, W. (2020). Information technology solutions, challenges, and suggestions for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Information Management, 57(102287), 102287. NCBI. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102287

He et al. (2020) underscore the extensive use of HIT to fight COVID-19, along with challenges associated with its utilization. This article aims to manage the coronavirus pandemic by healthcare information technologies while mitigating the risks of its use. The authors first delve into existing IT strategies, such as chatbots and mobile apps for teleconferencing. Furthermore, the article highlights security and privacy issues, ethical dilemmas, and the digital divide. The article suggests integrated coordination for connected data and promotes information sharing on breaches, cyberattacks, and data theft to prevent issues in the future. This article is included as it highlights the use of technology, opportunities, and challenges combined. The authors support the need for collaboration and coordination to stay connected in data sharing and be aware of malware and other data breaches while exchanging information.

NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

Semantha, F. H., Azam, S., Yeo, K. C., & Shanmugam, B. (2020). A systematic literature review on privacy by design in the healthcare sector. Electronics, 9(3), 452. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9030452

The article by Semantha et al. (2020) aims to assess the impact of Privacy by Design (PBD) and its limitations. The authors have highlighted the pressing need for integrating the privacy-by-design framework in healthcare information technologies due to escalating data breaches and cyberattacks. For this purpose, the article reviewed 253 papers with privacy keywords by design in HIT. This framework integrates the principles of preventative and proactive stance and privacy as default features of HIT, often missed in contemporary HIT tools. The article also identifies limitations hackers use to perform data breaches, such as lack of privacy impact system, ineffective privacy by design features, and security incident management (SIM) strategy. This relevant article includes a promising approach to prevent data breaches using a privacy design framework. The authors conclude by stressing the embedment of PBD within newly developed HIT software.

Summary

After profoundly researching four peer-reviewed journals by developing an annotated bibliography, the key findings that enhanced my knowledge of using HIT include that cybersecurity is a crucial element to consider while using HIT. Moreover, the proactive approach is superior to the reactive approach in protecting PHI. For example, this requires employing risk-based approaches and security incident management strategies. It is essential to train the end-users of HIT to promote cybersecurity and prevent data breaches by meaningful use of information technologies and promote collaboration and coordination in spreading the word about data breaches and ways to mitigate future risks. Lastly, the privacy-by-design default feature in HIT is another example of safeguarding PHI and preventing data breaches.

References