Alexandria, VA (MMD Newswire) October 23, 2012 -- The growing popularity of "apps" means that HIPAA covered entities will face challenges during and after the holiday season, as employees give and receive them as gifts. The blurry lines between consumer and professional apps - as well as their convenience and versatility - will require healthcare compliance professionals to take a new and broader look at their policies and procedures and those of the Business Associates.
The proliferation of mobile medical apps should not simply be treated like any other issue dealing with where your organizations get its information. These apps are likely to affect your entire HIT strategy and, in some cases, could affect the actual practice of medicine. In fact, that is the point of many of these apps.
This environment will require covered entities to make sure core assets remain intact and are not compromised by the workforce "testing out" their new toys.
From a HIPAA - perspective, these mobile medical apps will require a new review of your organizaiton's definition of its designated record sets - the very core of HIPAA compliance.
Some apps used on personal devices may generate protected health information. At a minimum, covered entities and Business Assoicates will have to incorporate these devices into their security risk assessment and management programs and adjust their information technology policies and procedures.
Addressing HIPAA and HITECH Act requirements can go a long way in effectively addressing many of these issues by creating the structure for handling the incoming wave of mobile medical apps coming our way this holiday season and beyond.
To help your health healthcare organization get on top of the problem, Melamedia, LLC, publisher of Health Information Privacy/Security Alert, is producing a 90-minute webinar:
Managing Mobile Medical Apps for HIPAA and HITECH Act Compliance
Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012
1 pm - 2:30 pm Eastern
Participants will be briefed on strategies for assessing and dealing with the operational and compliance issues raised by mobile medical apps. The webinar also will include a discussion of how mobile medical apps may become medical devices and trigger multiple regulatory responsibilities.
The Faculty
John Christiansen, JD, is Chair of the American Bar Association's HITECH Megarule Task Force; a member of the technical expert advisory panel for the HHS-funded Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration; and is the principle in Christiansen IT Law. He is also a professor at the Information School of the University of Washington where he teaches Policy, Law and Ethics in the Masters of Science in Information Management Executive Program.
Dennis Melamed is editor and publisher of Health Information Privacy/Security Alert and has 30 years of experience providing analysis of business and regulatory issues for a variety of associations and companies, including the National Governors Association. Dennis also is an adjunct professor at the Drexel College of Medicine, where he lectures on health data stewardship issues and regulations affecting pharmaceutical, biologic and medical device research.
To learn more, visit www.melamedia.com
Or contact
Contact: Katalin Sugar
703-704-5665
katalin@melamedia.com
About Melamedia, LLC
Since 1997, Melamedia, LLC has published Health Information Privacy/Security Alert, the healthcare industry's oldest publication devoted to the issues related to the confidentiality and security of all health data. Melamedia provides regulatory analyses and educational and training materials primarily for the healthcare, pharmaceutical and IT sectors.