Survey: Privacy and security are barriers to Interoperability

A recent survey finds that privacy and security concerns continue to hamper the increasing interoperability of healthcare systems.


A recent survey finds that privacy and security concerns continue to hamper the increasing interoperability of healthcare systems.

The research, based on a survey from the Trusted Network Accreditation Program (TNAP), found that survey respondents overwhelming indicate that improving the electronic movement of health information will improve patient care, notes Lee Barrett, CEO at the Electronic Health Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), which accredits organizations for meeting best practices for electronic data exchange.

EHNAC created the TNAP a year ago in collaboration with WEDI, SAFE-BioPharma Association, the eHealthcare Initiative and the eP3 Foundation, a community of nonprofits, standards organizations, industry leaders, researchers and government agencies working to improve health, education and wellness.



In the past year, TNAP worked to align accreditation with the 21st Century Cures Act by leveraging existing frameworks and best practices while supporting blockchain, GDPR, cloud initiatives and other underlying enabling technologies.

Also See: How payers are balancing patient engagement, data security

During the past year, TNAP had a specific focus on assuring identification and verification of stakeholders that would use the new digital exchange highway.

Results from the new TNAP survey include:

* Nearly all survey respondents agreed that improving the ability to electronically share data will result in an effective and efficient care delivery system.

* More than 80 percent say privacy and security accreditation is a viable method of bringing trust to data exchange.

* More than 80 percent agree that a barrier to interoperability has been concern from exchange participants of the privacy and security of data after it leaves their organization.

* Some 62 percent agree another barrier is a perceived inconsistent level of privacy and security with other exchange participants.

“It is vital that key industry stakeholders collaborate and place a dedicated focus on improving the current state of interoperability,” Barrett contends. “The findings of this survey demonstrates the healthcare industry sees tremendous value in privacy and security accreditation, as well as the necessity to improve the exchange of secure electronic information to improve patient care.”

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