Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)
In 2009, Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, so healthcare facilities will adopt and incorporate meaningful use of health information technology (IT). At first only a small number of hospitals had any kind of electronic health records (EHR), but RAND Corporation studies showed success, which motivated other companies to follow (Reider, 2018). However, RAND studies were not accurate predictors of widespread success due to unintended consequences, safety, and efficiency concerns (Reider, 2018).
Hackers come from all across the globe. In fact, the Pentagon is a very common target for hackers because it is the Defense Department. Not long ago 30,000 plus Pentagon employees’ personal information was exposed due to contractor breach (Martindale, 2018). Naturally Pentagon officials downplayed the event, and it makes one wonder how much national security information was exposed to foreign powers due to data leaks (Martindale, 2018).
Hospitals are also common targets due to multitudes of clients containing personal information that can be sold on the Dark Web to hackers around the world, and antiquated software making them vulnerable (Garrity, 2019). In fact, where I work, Winter Haven Hospital is still using Windows 7 as an operating system, which is not even supported by Microsoft anymore.
With these issues in mind, imagine the potential if hackers had to access prescriber accounts, and prescriptions, especially narcotics. I do not think many hackers have thought of this, because they are more apt to steal from bank accounts and credit cards. Considering the opioid epidemic and the street value of narcotics, it surprises me this sort of hacking is not more commonplace. This indicates to me that most hackers are not sophisticated and lack creativity. However, be assured they are out there, only not as common; the sophisticated hacker is more attracted to infrastructure manipulation instead due to varients of Stuxnet malware. Stuxnet would be too difficult to discuss here, but it illustrates how powerful computer hacking can be when it can take down electrical grids. Computer technology, indeed, released a Pandora’s box.
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