Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine (CIBM) Seminar:
Information Security is a topic which seems to appear almost daily in the national news. Whether it is Social Security numbers compromised at a prestigious university, or credit card information, harvested from a major retailer, the issues associated with electronic information management have become part of our daily lives. For those people who work in a healthcare environment, the potential impact of computer security breaches have even greater consequences, not just in terms of privacy, but also in the overall quality of healthcare treatment delivered to the patient. The terms confidentiality, integrity and availability take on a higher level of importance in the healthcare information technology field. This presentation will address both general information security challenges and industry best practices associated with managing, accessing, utilizing and protecting electronic healthcare information, and how to help ensure that patient information remains confidential, accurate and available to those who need it. During the session, we will cover technical controls (from a high level), as well as process and administrative controls which should be used to protect sensitive data in a healthcare environment. We will also cover such topics as Social Engineering, which accounts for more than 50% of data security breaches in the United States, each year. You will learn practical information and skills, related to how you can best protect PHI and how the organization can work to ensure HIPAA compliance, from an information technology perspective. Most importantly, the session will have a Q&A portion, during which the audience is encouraged to ask specific information technology security questions, and discuss situations of concern, related to computer security and electronic healthcare information access and management.