Security and Privacy

Few industries have greater security concerns than healthcare. From regulators and insurers to patients and the public, there is tremendous pressure to ensure that medical data are kept safe and confidential. In the United States, for example, healthcare providers are legally mandated by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure the integrity and privacy of patient information. As providers turn to digital infrastructures to access, process, share, and store data more productively and cost-effectively, their networking infrastructures must feature the most robust safeguards available.

Data
To comply with government mandates, health- care providers must safeguard the enterprise network from intruders intent on accessing medical information on servers or disrupting services. Within the network, they need to ensure that users can retrieve only the information for which they are authorized. Outside the network, they must protect communications with parties like other medical facilities, pharmacies, and insurers. A security breach anywhere can have costly consequences and erode patient confidence.

Voice
Telephony is key to healthcare services. Patients must be able to call their caregivers in times of need, and medical staffs must speak with labs, clinics, pharmacies, and each other, sharing sensitive patient and business information via phone. As with their data services, healthcare providers require strategies to keep these communications confidential. Moreover, their voice services must be resilient and always available, avoiding disruptions that jeopardize medical care and undermine patient confidence.

Wireless
Wireless solutions lower networking costs and offer pervasive communications throughout a facility or campus. Wireless systems, however, support the same confidential medical and business data as wired LANs. Therefore, it is essential they deliver the same levels of security. Healthcare providers must ensure that a hacker cannot access patient records and other sensitive information via a wireless link on the LAN. They must permit only authorized personnel within the organization to access private medical or business data. They need to offer caregivers the timesaving convenience of pervasive communications without compromising security.