Technology is revolutionizing the healthcare industry at all the stages of a patient’s journey. However, today we can find the essence of technology in everything i.e. remote GP appointments or the wristbands that count our steps. The 3D printers that are producing human cells and the robots that are carrying out the surgery, there is technology everywhere and health-tech startups are now also using the artificial intelligence (AI), the machine learning and the wearables for create a more personalized and accessible care.
However, at the heart of this technology there is data and the information is paramount to the evolution of the healthcare industry. This big data requires great responsibility and therefore privacy and security needs to be integral to the health-tech innovation. Hence, complying with GDPR Compliance helps the healthTech companies achieve the following things –
- Helps in Building Trust –
Health-tech businesses rely majorly on building the trust and maintaining that with their users. Because individuals need to feel comfortable while sharing their most personal data with a commercial entity like a healthcare company, in fact many patients are suspicious of such an exchange of personal information and important health data.
Talking about the statistics, in a global survey of more than 7,800 people it was found that 55% people don’t trust the tech companies to keep digital health information secure. There was seen a case in 2019 in which the information about the millions of NHS patients was found to be sold to the pharmaceutical companies abroad.
As a result, 27% people are willing to try the virtual care from the well trusted companies such as –
- Google,
- Microsoft,
- Amazon, and
- GDPR Compliant medical startups.
Because for them the transparency is crucial and patients want to focus on getting better in terms of their health and not on constantly checking their privacy settings!
- Helps to Connect Emotionally –
Health-tech entrepreneurs can accomplish some of the most amazing things but only if they’re given the access to the right data. But in healthcare sector more than any other sector, the patient and business relationship is emotional because the healthcare industry by its very nature is emotional. That means, this industry can’t afford to have any error.
So, only if you get the privacy of their personal information right, you’ll be able to create the loyal customers that would believe in your business. On the contrary, if you lose the personal health data of a patient you could traumatize him or her while opening yourself up to the litigation. In fact, you could also face a barrage of the bad reviews on social media. It means, you should put your users and their best interests first.
- It Protects form Hacking –
Do you know, according to some of the sources, the medical information is among the most valuable information on the black market. This is the reason why there has been a boom in the ransomware which attacks the affecting healthcare. Cyber criminals believe that they’re more likely to be paid in healthtech because of the nature of the service in healthtech industry.
For instance, in 2020, the fitness wearables company named as “Garmin” paid $10million to the hackers to free its systems, therefore there has been a number of attacks on the public health services in the entire Europe.
In Germany, the number of the successful cyber attacks on the health service providers that are operating the critical infrastructure has been more than doubled in the year 2020 as compared to the 2019, likewise France also reported 27 major cyber attacks against the health institutions recently.
- HealthCare is a Big Investment Industry –
Do you know, in the UK alone, the health-tech sector has attracted more than $7.7billion money from the investors over the last five years which has made it the second biggest category in the national technology sector.
The healthcare industry is so big that all the technology giants such as Facebook, Apple, and IBM are also desperate to expand their operations into healthcare. Therefore –
- Amazon has recently launched their wristband that tracks the health data of the health conscious people, and
- Google is also expected to pay $19.7 billion to purchase the Nuance Communications. The Nuance Communications is a pioneer in conversational AI (artificial intelligence) for the healthcare sector.
The potential for this multi-million-dollar sector is huge, but the privacy is one of the most important strands in the process. The reason is that the investors want to know that whether a company has the right procedures, the right trainings, and the right culture in place to prevent a future potential fine from the regulator or form the reputational damage in case if a security breach happens.
Conclusion –
HealthTech is a highly regulated sector, in fact looking at it with the data protection and privacy concern, there is also a strict guidance that is governing the medical devices including –
- Software,
- Patient care and confidentiality,
- Clinical trials,
- Governance,
- Advertising,
- Public procurement, and
- Product liability etc.
However, the Privacy Compliance Hub such as GDPR Compliance provides a clear and easy-to-understand checklist that the employees of HealthTech organizations can follow and implement which eventually negates the need to remember each step. And, it also takes 90% of data breaches down to the human error but with that it’s imperative that your team has the right tools it needs to meet the regulatory demands of GDPR compliance.