Look back to 2020, and you’ll see that it was a record year for cyber breaches. The shift to working from home created new security gaps that most organizations weren’t prepared for. Match that with how reliant the healthcare industry is on internet-connected devices, telemedicine, and digital health records, and you’ll see how maintaining cybersecurity creates major roadblocks to improving patient care in organizational efficiency.

Your inbox has likely been filling up with the news of continuous data breaches of healthcare facilities across the United States. You know healthcare organizations are a prime target for cyber criminals – and the data agrees. According to Black Book Market Research, more than 93% of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach in the past three years, with little signs of slowing down.

With the new year here, you likely have new goals. And the best way to get there is to look at the year’s past and see how you can evolve for the better. Becker’s Health IT recently released an article that covers 10 emerging trends in health IT for 2021.

In this blog, we’ll expand on some of the lessons learned from 2020 and offer educational resources and solutions to help you reach your goals in the New Year. Let’s dive in!

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been known to enhance the speed, precision and effectiveness of human efforts, so it makes sense that AI has found its place in almost every industry. The healthcare industry has seen AI success in wellness and care reminders, clinical decision support, patient privacy and more.

The iatricSystems Fall Exchange addressed various healthcare IT challenges covering topics such as privacy and security, clinical improvements and report writing. As we continue this blog series, you’ll learn key points and insight from industry experts and their discussions with healthcare leaders. You can also access all of the recorded privacy and security sessions here.

Last month, we hosted our first major virtual event – the iatricSystems Fall Exchange – that covered the top challenges healthcare organizations face in 2020, including privacy and security, clinical improvements and report writing.

Hospitals and healthcare organizations all over the country are facing similar privacy and security challenges – especially this past year. From an increase of breaches, the risk of ransomware and remote accessibility for vendors and employees, 2020 has opened up plenty of new security gaps. The good news is when so many people go through the same thing, there’s a lot to share and a whole lot more to learn.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hackers have continuously targeted credentials to gain access to enterprise networks, particularly those in healthcare, given the rise in remote care and telework. Here are a few recent examples:

Last year, there were 798 confirmed incidences of internal and external healthcare breaches according to the Verizon 2020 Data Breach Investigation Report. We read about these incidents virtually daily, and yet, instead of breach numbers reducing, the numbers continue to rise. Of those incidents, 48 percent were caused by insiders.