Importance Of Coronavirus Impact On Healthcare Sector

By Author: Devender Pal
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Importance Of Coronavirus Impact On Healthcare Sector
A recent study by the Institute of Clinical Evidence (Iceco) found that there is a high level of risk of being exposed to a new, previously unknown influencer of the Meningitis virus and this is associated with the use of contaminated digital health records (DHR). The authors concluded, "The current system for collecting and managing confidential medical records does not adequately address many of these risks." This finding highlights the need for improvements in the current DHR implementation strategies of countries where Meningitis prevalence is increasing. This study comes at a time when the Healthcare Information Management Service (HIMS), the electronic medical record and Clinical Data Direct Connect (CDDC) systems are experiencing major problems with the software. Discrepancies have been identified between the systems and the way in which the clinical data is handled by hospitals.

coronavirus impact on healthcare sector
According to the report, "The current system for collecting and managing confidential medical records fails to meet the needs of ...
... the care community. Despite improvements in other elements of the healthcare system, there continues to be a lack of transparency and a lack of trust in the digital health record and the information it contains. There is also a great deal of frustration that nurses, clinicians and other care providers have with these systems." The report goes on to say that despite the problems in the IMR, there has been "no evidence that current safety standards for digital health records are inadequate." Even with this conclusion, the recommendations put forth by the Iceco researchers state that there needs to be urgent improvement efforts to deal with the new threats posed by the Meningitis outbreak.

However, despite the recommendations, the situation is still alarming with regard to the potential impact of the latest strain of the disease. One of the concerns is that the medical distancing software used by most hospitals and clinics is not robust enough to protect them against the latest strains of the deadly disease. With this software, the same code can affect different files across the network.

In addition to this, two of the most important features of the digital health record are being compromised because of the way the file is created. The file is vulnerable to attack from unidentified attackers who may create corrupt or erroneous codes and then send them across the network to affect different computers that access the file. Another impact of the coronavirus strain is that the computer virus is able to attach itself to the health record before it becomes active and continues to replicate itself within the network.

If this strain is not tackled, it will impact on the delivery of healthcare services. According to the researchers at Iceco, "The continued attack on this software highlights the need for organizations to reevaluate their data security procedures. Even with the additional security provided by software automation, this flaw will continue to allow attackers to bypass authentication and integrity controls."

The impact of this virus is particularly serious in clinical areas such as intensive care units, rehabilitation and geriatrics because these are the settings in which patients often come into contact with each other. It also has an impact on the pharmaceutical and food industry due to the way it destroys critical data. This software also affects the HCAHPS portal, which serves as the central data repository for clinical records across the country. The HCAHPS portal is being compromised more frequently as well and therefore it is critical that the healthcare sector to take action to mitigate the impact of the cascading attacks on the digital health record and the entire housing of the National Clinical Information Service (NCIS).

Experts believe that a single case of the infection has the potential to compromise the flow of information between clinical workers and patient data. The affected software was used by more than 1.2 million people across the country as a portal to access medical records. There have been calls from various congressional committees asking for better surveillance of healthcare workers who come in direct contact with patients, especially those under the age of 25. According to an estimate, the number of cases that have been identified so far has reached over one hundred cases, with a thousand still undiscovered. The statistics released by the US Department of Health and Human Services indicate that the majority of these incidents involve nurses, patient caretakers, administration staff and other clinical support staff.

Medical device manufacturers have been contacted and are in the process of creating lab-based test products that can be used by the field to identify the impact of the latest outbreak. Currently, all investigations are at the early stages and need time, money and focus to narrow down the pathogens and the threats they pose. According to Corning, the affected Corivirus lab-based test products are already in the process of production and it is expected that they would be available to customers in one to two months. It is important for the health care industry to understand the current outbreak in order to make better policy decisions, and it is also essential for the industry to consider the implications of this new outbreak on the quality of services provided by medical professionals. It is too early to say what might happen next, but the focus must now shift towards preventing future outbreaks by developing solutions, and investing further in effective surveillance and information sharing.

Source : https://mespoir.com/