- Health information exchanges, many of which will be launched by inexperienced and understaffed organizations, will force more attention on security and privacy.
- There will be increased fines and regulatory action by [US–Ed.] State Attorneys General and regulatory agencies.
- Data breaches and associated costs will increase, as penalties for information security negligence are acted on.
- Hospital governing-boards will exert their power to manage data breach risks in order to increase accountability and fiduciary responsibility.
- A significant ‘data spill’ is inevitable and will bring national attention to the issue.
- There will be heightened patient awareness and concern over the security of their private medical data.
- The finalization of data breach notification rules by the Department of Health and Human Services could remove the controversial “harm threshold” provision that determines whether notification is required when an incident occurs. If removed, this will create a risk of over notification and desensitization of patients.
Experts name top 7 trends in health information privacy for 2011