Artificial intelligence technologies offer tremendous promise in healthcare, but it’s crucial for organizations to carefully assess the complex data privacy concerns involved with different types of AI products and deployments, said Karen Habercoss, chief privacy officer at UChicago Medicine.
“Really understanding what the use cases are and how we can minimize the amount of data we’re handing over so we can protect our patients, their privacy and their data” is critical, she said.
“I’m very pro-AI. I think it is going to be game changer in healthcare in terms of how we clinically take care of patients. Those are the very positive things that come out of it. But with it comes great responsibility to protect our patients from things that they may not understand,” she said.
“And quite frankly, I’m not sure everyone in the business understands it yet either. So, it’s incumbent on us in privacy and security to take it one step further and be the ones that understand what those implications are.”
In this audio interview (see audio link below photo) with Information Security Media Group at the HealthSec Summit USA in Boston, Habercoss also discussed:
- The data privacy risks posed by major third-party vendors;
- Privacy considerations involving the evolving regulatory landscape, including recent changes pertaining to HIPAA and reproductive health data, complying with different state privacy laws, and the lack of national data privacy legislation;
- The dynamics between data privacy and security teams in large healthcare organizations such as UChicago Medicine.
Habercoss is responsible for the enterprise strategy and operations of the health system privacy program. Prior to her current role, she worked in the compliance department at The Joint Commission and as the corporate compliance and quality officer for PRS LLC. Habercoss is an elected member of the steering committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges Compliance Officer Forum and co-leads the privacy-security task group for the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group. She is a member of the HIMSS Cybersecurity, Privacy and Security Committee.
Source link
