Chances are you've experienced this yourself: your doctor no longer takes notes about you on a sheet of paper inside a folder with your name on it.
Instead, you're talking and they are typing into an electronic database.
Now, for the diagnosis: new research revealed by the American Medical Association says this switch to electronic records is accompanied by an increasing number of breaches.
Research findings, over the last 7 year period of time:
"The most common entity breached was a health care provider, with 1503 breaches (70%) comprising a total of 37.1 million records."
And while the size of health plan breaches tend to be much bigger than each breach at a doctors office, clinic or hospital, this chart paints a picture of why the cumulative effect of these smaller breaches merits attention, stat.
The blue line represents the number of medical providers being breached—notice the trend.
Health care cybersecurity stories we've reported on this year include cases of medical records held for ransom, healthcare companies opening digital wallets to pay ransom, healthcare clinics that are paying the ransom, and one hospital that had to divert ambulances due to a cyber attack.
All of these cases are starting to paint a stark picture: when a medical provider's digital records are breached, a patient's health may be compromised along with their privacy.
