Page 42 - Part 1 Introduction to Telemedicine

SVMIC Introduction to Telemedicine

The question often arises asking whether especially secure,

encrypted channels are mandatory for telemedical
communication. The answer is technically complex. Encryption is

not strictly mandatory under HIPAA. The situation faced by
providers is that, in the face of an actual breach, or even a

complaint or inquiry about a potential unauthorized disclosure, the

investigating agency will retrospectively ask, “Could this have been
prevented if a better level of security had been used?” The answer

will almost always be, “Yes.” In that case, the event may be viewed
as a violation. The good news is that security has been a

paramount concern for teleconferencing and health information

technology vendors for a decade, and many applications that were
originally distributed with almost no protection now use the same

safeguards as “secure” applications. The bad news is that installing
and configuring applications may require some technical expertise,

for which the provider is responsible.

From a strictly technical standpoint, the responsibilities of
telemedical practitioners pertain to:

 Appropriate selection, installation and maintenance of
equipment and software

 Training users in safe and effective operation

 Protecting and securing infrastructure from natural and
human hazards

 Assuring confidentiality, integrity and availability of systems

and information

 Assuring that information from telemedical transactions is

linked to the patient record in a timely way, labeled with
valid metadata, securely stored and backed up, monitored

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