Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

As the pharmaceutical industry seeks to improve health outcomes globally, a critical area of investment is increasing participant diversity. We know that gender, age, and race have profound effects on the way pharmaceuticals are metabolized. That is why the FDA has been encouraging diversity in clinical trials for years, although without mandate nor incentive. The burden has largely fallen on industry groups to work out the how.

The healthcare sector is undergoing digitalization and adopts new technologies to improve patient care, offer new services for remote patients and reach operational excellence. The integration of new technologies in the complex healthcare IT infrastructure creates new challenges regarding data protection and cybersecurity.

SimpleHealth takes their company name to heart. They are a reproductive tele-health company, focused on building thoughtful and impactful services that enable patients to own their reproductive health journey. Today, the core vertical is an online birth control prescription and free home delivery service.

One of the most crucial things for the healthcare sector during the ongoing global pandemic, amidst many other competing priorities, is keeping a check on its cybersecurity measures. During the first half of 2020, HHS or the Department of Health and Human Services recorded a 50% increase in cybersecurity breaches in the field of healthcare itself.

Chris Moxham, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer at Fulcrum Therapeutics, an innovative biotech addressing the causes of genetically defined disease. By developing treatments that address the root cause of disease, Fulcrum goes a step further than creating therapies that just manage symptoms and develops treatments that alter the genetic expression of disease, enabling life-changing outcomes.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a U.S. law designed to protect individual privacy by establishing national standards for maintaining sensitive patient health information and medical records. HIPAA compliance rules incorporate requirements from several other legislative acts, including the Public Health Service Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Technology plays a crucial role in the operation of today’s healthcare service organization. Many hospitals are increasing use of modern technologies like mobile computing and cloud services to improve care delivery, resulting in far-reaching impact for doctors and administrators. At the same time, the current COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of life. The situation has accelerated the adoption of virtual care to stay relevant during the pandemic.

Breaches and cyberattacks are on the rise in the healthcare industry. The recent acceleration of digital technology and connectivity within Healthcare has led to significant patient care delivery improvements, more effective population health management, and better patient outcomes. With this increased technology and connectivity, however, comes increased exposure to cyberattacks that can impact patient care delivery, safety, and privacy.

According to the FDA, 30 percent of clinical trials are flagged for data-integrity violations (i.e. missing source data and corrupted audit trails). The patchwork of evolving regulations, as well as relying on non-compliant consumer-grade technology to handle data collection and storage, are often hurdles in getting your raw data into a format that is submission-ready.