AI in Healthcare: With Great Power Comes Great Risk

By Published On: December 13th, 2019

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine earning (ML) stand to transform outcomes for stakeholders across the healthcare industry more directly than nearly any other technology since the discovery of antibiotics. Able to ingest and learn from massive amounts of data — including patient information, clinical data, billing, and financials — these technologies can benefit every part of a healthcare organization with time and cost savings. They enable everything from the identification of inefficiencies on the administrative side of medicine to predictive analytics for preventative patient care and real-time use of IoT medical device data in early identification of medical conditions.

It makes sense, then, that healthcare tech vendors are pouring their efforts into finding ever more powerful ways to leverage various datasets in their developing technologies. Furthermore, it’s likely we haven’t seen anything close to what will become a reality for AI-based healthcare solutions. With so many tech vendors and solutions to choose from, the challenges for any organization looking to implement AI in this industry are not simply a matter of selecting the right capabilities in a platform. Rather, the real problems lie in the usability and risks surrounding the data itself.

Managing Risks

Verinovum is one such organization, providing the data curation necessary to create clean, actionable data that can then be leveraged in powerful AI technologies. From the very beginning, when Mike Noshay, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer, was getting Verinovum off the ground, he worked hand-in-hand with security expert Jerald Dawkins, Ph.D., founder of True Digital Security.

“Verinovum has always taken a security-first approach, recognizing the risk that comes with providing value in this industry. It seems like, for some, security ends up becoming a barrier to advancements with revolutionary technologies, such as AI in healthcare,” says Dawkins. “The fact is, security challenges are real, but they are also manageable if properly mitigated.”

“The issue I often see is that the risks are not managed appropriately, and as a result, a technology that could otherwise lead to tremendous advancements in healthcare ends up becoming just another avenue for attack,” Dawkins continues. “I often say security is a team sport — that’s very much the case in healthcare technology. Cybersecurity experts and healthcare innovators must work as a team to manage risk accordingly and ensure that, ultimately, patient outcomes are impacted for the better by securely deployed, emerging technologies.”

Noshay comments, “A comprehensive security program was top of mind from day one. Jerry and his team helped us ensure our metaphorical windows and doors were locked tightly and helped shape a robust security program to guide sound internal practices. Much of this work was the foundation of our SOC 2 and HITRUST certifications.”

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