Final Report: Vendors

7. IT Security

Biometric technologies are predicted to become more important in maintaining data integrity in the next two years; the importance of firewalls is expected to decline.

Respondents were asked to indicate which two security tools they felt were the most important to healthcare organizations in maintaining data integrity, both currently and in the next two years. Firewalls (46%), data encryption (35%), and audit logs of each access to patient health records (32%) were the most frequently cited security tools at this time.

In two years, data encryption, identified by nearly a third of the respondents, is predicted to be one of the most important security tools that healthcare organizations will use to maintain data integrity. The two categories in which respondents predicted the greatest change in relative importance over the next two years were firewalls and biometric technologies for encryption. Firewalls are anticipated to be less important in two years than they are today, dropping 19 points from 46% to 27%. Conversely, the percentage of respondents who identified biometric technologies increased significantly from 16% to 29%.

Figures:

Figure 11. Security Tools (Today vs. Two Years)

Next: Technology Adoption