Bring Your Own, BYO, takes me way back to my young adult days when small parties were often BYOB since none of us could afford to provide all of the alcohol. To us it mostly meant bring your own bottle of wine for the evening. That, of course, was in the dinosaur age of land lines, newspapers, and handwritten letters.
BYOD
Today, healthcare is exploding into the BYO world with BYOD — Bring Your Own Device. This is not about taking your smart phone to dinner with your co-workers, but about bringing your own mobile device into the workplace for work purposes. Experience with BYOD has demonstrated that individuals using a familiar, personal device have improved work productivity. Since the workplace will not bear the expense of providing you with a device that meets your needs, it’s up to you to bring the device you prefer.
BYOD security
So, what is the downside to BYOD? I’m sure you guessed the number one stumbling block of these mobile devices in healthcare: Security. The problem is not with the device itself, but with data security while using the device. Your personal device that traverses from the outside world into the hospital or clinic environment must enter into the HIPAA-compliant, data-encrypted, fully protected healthcare world. Your own device must move from your private social media playground to the formal software platforms of clinic systems. It’s like going from cruising along US Route 50 in Nevada to navigating Fifth Avenue in NYC at rush hour with one step through the hospital door.
Mobile device security options
If there is a security breakdown, the liability for a data breach will rest with the hospital or clinic entity not the device owner, even when you are using your own device. You may be ready and willing, excited even, to use your own device in the workplace, but the workplace may be unable or unwilling to support it. Network security is becoming more sophisticated with Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions. Mobile device security options include:
- “Geo-fencing,” which locks down and secures mobile device function based on the location of use
- Data virtualization, which prevents storage of secure data on the mobile device
- Virtual Private Network (VPN), which can provide secure data exchange
Even with this MDM technology, hospitals and clinics have a heavy burden to ensure 100% security. IT systems, policies, and procedures not only must be in place for mobile devices in healthcare, they must be adequate and maintained over time.
The benefit of BYOD
Bring Your Own options tend to provide flexibility that makes people happy. Users like having a device of choice; it is familiar and no training is needed. BYOD eliminates one hurdle of IT system adoption if the hardware, at least, is familiar.
It might be time to ask your hospital where it stands on mobile devices. Hopefully your healthcare system will be on the road to developing an IT policy for you to bring your own device and may even be ready for you to load secure software and become a BYOD user. It is clear that BYOD will require a meeting in the middle with security awareness by the user and device flexibility by enterprise IT.
Do you have an experience with mobile devices in healthcare? If so, send us a comment.
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