Page 36 - Hakoba Times

36 The Indian Eye | OPINION | JUNE 12, 2020

digital healthcare

and rising Cyber Concerns

The outbreak of COVID-19 has not only pushed economies into recession but also brought forth the
fragility of healthcare systems in general. Migrating to digital mode has since been a major move across the
healthcare sector. Increased digitalisation is expected to help service providers create a robust and critical

infrastructure focused on patient’s safety and quality care

It has been predicted that by
kritikA rOy 2025 most of the hospitals world-
T he future of digital wide would move to the digital

appears
healthcare
platform, thereby increasing the
promising as patients
would be more comfortable us- market size of the healthcare
sector from US$ 16.92 billion in
ing digital services for complex 2017 to about US$ 58.78 billion
and sensitive medical condi- by 2025. However, there is an ev-
tions. However, a major down- ident downside to these health-
side of going digital is the immi- care innovations. These new de-
nent threat of attacks lingering vices open-up more entry points
in the cyberspace. Considering of cyberattacks and challenges
that the healthcare sector is crit- for those in charge of online secu-
ical infrastructure, patient in- rity and patient data protection.
formation and medical reports
available online would be a gold Cyber risks and Concerns
trove that could be exploited for The healthcare sector has
various malicious purposes. been the prime target of online
ing technology and so on would deep learning, body scans have attacks threatening day-to-day
digital healthcare
impact different forms of treat- been shown to analyse CAT work and compromising confi-
Digital healthcare refers ment, care concepts, and image scans up to 150 times faster than dential patient data. The critical
to the integration of medical of the medical profession and human radiologists, detecting infrastructure systems in hospi-
knowledge with information role of patients. In terms of IT acute neurological events in tals are particularly threatened
technology (IT) applications strategy, many of these areas re- just 1.2 seconds. With several by ransomware, besides differ-
(apps) to help improve medical late to opportunities for the for- medical-grade sensors includ- ent types of malware and distrib-
care and supervision of patients. mulation of hospital processes ing optical, temperature, elec- uted denial of service (DDoS)
This means that a smartphone subject to the concept of “hos- trodermal, accelerometer and attacks, which can be locked
can be used to determine pa- pital 4.0”. New diagnostic and barometer being incorporated up by malicious actors and un-
tient’s medical condition by therapeutic approaches are de- within wearables, these devices locked only following payment
monitoring patient’s vital data veloped with the support of IT can be comfortably worn on the of ransom.
(pulse, blood pressure and oxy- management in the context of arm for several days and have Medical devices are designed
gen saturation) including body “precision medicine” approach higher-than-average patient sat- for one-point tasks like monitor-
temperature and movement and digital therapeutics that isfaction and adherence rates. ing of heart rates or dispensing
patterns. It can also be used to powers personalised predictive The data from these wearables drugs. They are not designed
determine if the patient has tak- care. can be used in effective ways with security in mind. Although
en the prescribed medication. Today’s telehealth technolo- like monitoring health and pro- the devices themselves may not
Digital technologies enable gy is empowering patients in the viding preventative care. For store the patient data that at-
need-oriented solutions and the remotest locations of the world instance, Hong Kong has been tackers pursue, they can be used
provision of preventative, clin- to access quality healthcare and putting electronic wristbands on as launching grounds to attack
ical and rehabilitative services. receive life-saving diagnoses. arriving passengers to enforce a server that holds valuable in-
Deploying advanced technolo- Telemedicine allows access to the coronavirus quarantine. formation, or facilitates access
gies like digital health, big data, quality healthcare at any time The wristbands are connected to other networks, or let hackers
artificial intelligence (AI), aug- thereby levelling the playing to a smartphone app to make install expensive ransomware
mented reality (AR) and virtual field – geographically and finan- sure that people stay at home on servers. In a worst-case sce-
reality (VR), wearables and in- cially. Additionally, it has been and break the chain of further
ternet of things (IoT), 3D print- observed that using AI and spread of the virus. Continued at next page... >>

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