Industry Voices—How the coronavirus has prompted a second wave of healthcare data
Fierce Health Payers August 4, 2020
In 2009, the HITECH Act prompted hospitals and medical centers across the country to move patient information from paper health records to electronic versions. Electronic health records (EHRs) introduced a wave of new possibilities—like searching for information instantly, analyzing large trends and preventing data loss.
They also created a need for rigorous standards of privacy and security.
Historically, very few groups outside of health care have had a good reason to collect information about personal health—but the coronavirus changed that.
Suddenly, organizations all over the world are incentivized to understand this virus better, and many are going so far as to do their own research. Local governments are tracing symptoms, offices are asking their employees for temperature checks and companies...