A Harvard Medical School team published a letter in the
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association this week warning of the substantial information security concerns around telehealth.
The authors, led by organizational cybersecurity researcher Mohammad S. Jalali, note that the uptick in telemedicine services has undoubtedly made healthcare more accessible – but that the relaxation in regulations about virtual care combined with a heightened threat landscape can spell trouble. As we continue this shift to telemedicine, new issues and risks unravel that need to be addressed, particularly in regard to information security and privacy, and ongoing work is needed to ensure that our technology infrastructure provides an environment for safe and effective care delivery, they wrote.