Datapatrol solutions use case: Health sector

DataPatrol is a cyber security company that works on the protection of organization’s confidential and sensitive data. In our contemporary area, data is used everywhere whether in hardcopies or digital networks. In a fast-paced digital world, digitalisation is transforming all sectors, tools, methods and data into digital one. 

Nowadays many physicians have employed the copy/paste function in electronic health records (EHRs), such as medical histories and discharge summaries from previous patient notes, which results in duplicate information within or between documents. 

Based on the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety research, around 66% – 90% of clinicians routinely use copy and paste functionality during their clinical documentation.

While this practice can increase work efficiency and save a physician’s time, it creates imprecise and misleading notes and the possibility of repeating outdated information.

Copy & Paste risks

Copy and Paste can result in problematic consequences such as risk to patient safety, faulty clinical study outcomes, and misinformation that can create mistrust between the patient and the doctor. All of that can result in clinical errors and damage the health institute’s credibility and reputation.

In October 2015, the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety convened by ECRI Institute released a special report, Copy/Paste: Prevalence, Problems, and Best Practices. This comprehensive ECRI report demonstrated that practitioners routinely use the ‘copy and paste function in their practice. 

Subsequently, in February 2016, the Partnership released recommendations for the safe use of ‘copy and paste’ and an accompanying implementation Toolkit for the safe use of ‘copy and paste’ in their report, Health IT Safe Practices: Toolkit for the Safe Use of ‘copy and paste.’

Datapatrol solutions to the health sector

DataPatrol provides the AntiCopy feature to help health institutes overcome this issue and be compliant with international health organizations such as Joint Commission International (JCI) and NIST recommendations. 

Anti-copy solution controls the Copy/Paste function on the physicians’ workstations whenever they access specific systems (ex: Electronic Health Records EHRs or Health Information Systems HIS), requiring them to enter the patients’ data clinical diagnoses manually.

Moreover, DataPatrol also provides a Digital Screen Watermark solution that enhances patient data confidentiality and protection and assists in tracking the source of any insider data leakage. The solution applies a watermark of choice on your screen with detailed information about the user, IP Address, time, and other data on the desired workstations, which complements the existing security solution.

The health sector is one of the most crucial ones in terms of data leak as it continues to offer healthcare services while improving treatments with new technologies. But criminals and cyber actors took that advantage in order to exploit vulnerabilities that are consequences of these changes. For that purpose, DataPatrol provides solutions in order to reduce data breach risks and raise awareness within the healthcare sector.