Building Trust in Telehealth: Addressing Patient Concerns about Security & Privacy

Modern-day healthcare practices have seen a gradual rise in the remote patient care and telehealth system. The familiarity of patients in using such telehealth software systems to receive care have also had a staggering impact in the rise of telehealth software systems.

Despite its lucrative benefits, a study finds that patients are quite hesitant to use telehealth platforms. The main reason for this has been telehealth data breaches and poor telehealth security. To give you an idea about this, a study published in the American Journal of Managed Care found that with 51 telehealth applications available in the market, only 28% of the telemedicine apps had a privacy policy in place. Apart from that, only 16% of the applications had a security policy in place, leaving the ecosystem vulnerable to telehealth data breaches.

The same study also showed that between 2014 and 2022, almost 14,655 data breaches were reported, and almost 41.2 million healthcare records were illegally stolen or disclosed. While this is one of the major barriers for patients to use telehealth systems, it also restricts the high adoption rate of telehealth app development.

So what can healthcare providers do to build telehealth trust and enhance their healthcare data security for their telehealth applications?

Well, in this blog, let’s have a look at implementing telehealth security by implementing robust data protection measures and the role HIPAA compliance plays in enhancing it. Apart from that, we’ll also discuss the strategies on how to protect patient data in telehealth to boost their confidence.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Understanding Patient Concerns

To rebuild patients’ trust with respect to their health and security, it is crucially important to understand their concerns first. While every individual might have different concerns when it comes to patient privacy and data protection, there are some major gaps that must be identified and addressed first. Here are some of the major patient concerns that you should address:

1. Data Breaches and Privacy Invasions: The most common concern of patients is usually about data breaches and unwanted exposure of their healthcare data. Along with that, the medical information of a patient can reveal a lot about them, which is why people hesitate to share their health information. So, when they are using a healthcare application such as telehealth, they do not want any unauthorized personnel to access their medical information. This not only compromises the integrity of the practice but also increases the chances of potential misuse of their data.

2. Feeling Vulnerable in a Virtual Environment: We often read about social media users complaining about being watched while using social media platforms. Some of the patients have reported the same while using the telehealth platforms. To address this, you must implement robust security measures during ongoing telehealth consultations and also provide healthcare providers with secure communication channels.

3. Lack of Transparency and Control: Data has become the new age currency, and in the modern-day digital healthcare ecosystem, it is like a gold mine for cyber thieves. That is the reason many patients are anxious about sharing their data with healthcare providers. The lack of transparency and control over who is using them and for what purpose are some of the major concerns of healthcare providers.

Building a Foundation of Security

Suppose you are a healthcare provider looking to build a custom telehealth app. In that case, it is important for you to lay the foundation for your telehealth security, patient privacy, and data protection during the development phase of the telehealth software. Here are some things that you must consider to build a solid foundation for security:

1. Secure Communication Protocols: The main purpose of telehealth is to enable seamless communication between healthcare providers and patients. Here, it is important to secure these communication channels by establishing secure communication protocols using encryption. One of the best practices in security for telehealth platforms is to establish AES 256 encryption to help healthcare providers protect their classified information.

2. Multi-Factor Authentication and Access Controls: Another industry-standard practice is to implement multi-factor authentication to access healthcare information. This, along with robust access controls, helps healthcare providers to restrict unauthorized access to patient information, significantly contributing to improving telehealth security.

3. Regular Security Audits and Penetration Testing: To enhance your telehealth security, you need to conduct regular security audits with penetration testing to identify and address the potential vulnerabilities in the telehealth system. This will not only identify the security gaps in your telehealth system but also help you in addressing with easy pinpointing.

HIPAA Compliance: A Cornerstone of Trust

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, helps regulate guidelines with regard to the privacy and security of patients’ health information. The role of HIPAA has become even more significant in recent years as healthcare practices are moving towards a completely digital healthcare landscape.

Abiding by HIPAA during the development of telehealth software can help you in enhancing the security of your system, and being an Act enacted by the government of the United States of America, it is often used as an epitome of safety, privacy, security, and trust.

HIPAA regulations for telehealth require healthcare providers to implement robust data encryption practices like AES 256. Along with that, HIPAA regulations for telehealth also require strong access controls that eliminate the problem of unauthorized access. Last but not least, HIPAA also instructed healthcare providers to train their staff with respect to privacy policies and security while handling patient data and using telehealth software.

During this entire process, HIPAA also indicates the need to ingrain transparency in healthcare practices and patient communications. So, being clear and transparent about how the patient’s data is being used, protected, and managed is crucially necessary.

Empowering Patients with Control

While your focus is on improving the safety and security of your software along with the patient data stored in it, you should never forget about the lost trust of patients. And the best way to regain their trust is to empower them by giving them more control of their healthcare data. Here are some ways that you can use to empower your patients and give them more control of their health data:

1. User-friendly Privacy Settings: Add an option for privacy settings in the telehealth software, which will allow the users to control who can access their telemedicine or telehealth records and for what purpose. This will put them in control of their health data and help you in regaining their trust with better patient engagement.

2. Access Logs and Data Tracking Transparency: In this option or function, you can also provide the patients with access logs about how their data can be accessed and used within the telehealth platform. It will make your healthcare practice more transparent and empower patients with more control.

3. Clear Opt-in and Opt-out Options: The first step that the patient should do when using telehealth solutions is to give their consent to collect and use their medical data. While most telehealth platforms make the opt-in option easy, you can go a step further by giving patients more control over their health data by providing an easy option for opt-out.

Building a Culture of Security and Privacy

The best way to regain trust of your patients and improve telehealth security is to build a culture of security and privacy. One of the best ways to do that is to spread awareness about it, starting with the staff who are responsible for accessing and managing patient data within the telehealth system. Providing them with effective training can go a long way and help in improving the overall security of your telehealth platform.

Along with effective training, you should understand that the healthcare industry is prone to cyber-attacks. So, having a response plan for telehealth data breaches can be extremely helpful in mitigating damage and ensuring transparency in case of any such security incidents.

Frequently Asked Questions