RHIO.docx - Running Head REGIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION...

Running Head: REGIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION ORGANIZATIONS 1
Regional Health Information Organizations
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REGIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION ORGANIZATIONS 2
Public Health Informatics: privacy and confidentiality challenges
Public Health Informatics, PHI, is the systematic application of computer science and
information technology in the research, learning and practice of public health. In the system,
clinical guidelines, computers as well as communication and information systems are used and
apply in the public health context as well as related professions. This system has encountered
privacy and confidentiality challenges within its history. These challenges include:
1) The interconnection and sharing of critical health information creates the risk of one
stakeholder accessing data which they should not.
2) In PHI, all stakeholders, including competitors, are brought together. Therefore, there is
the risk of one competitor acquiring their competitors’ information and using it to their
advantage.
3) The level of confidentiality of a patient’s information decreases in these systems. This is
because more parties share the information, meaning it can easily leak.
4) The other concern is that when health information is computerized, it becomes vulnerable
to safety issues such as hacking. When this happens, critical information can leak.
5) The fifth confidentiality challenge is that in the event that a policy breach occurs, it is
harder to know the liable party. This is caused by the access of the confidential data by
multiple stakeholders in a public health system.
6) Finally, the other potential breach of privacy and accuracy suffices during the transfer of
physical files into an electronic system. Owing to the large amount of files, the wrong
information can be fed into a patient’s database (Rhodes, 2006).
EHR and RHIO solutions

REGIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION ORGANIZATIONS 3
Electronic Health Records, EHRs, enable the conversion and storage of physical health records
into electronic files. On the other hand, a Regional Health Information Organization, RHIO, is a
form of health information exchange that brings together health care stakeholders of a
geographical location and governs the health information exchange within it. These two systems
can help in resolving the above issues.
RHIO
 The RHIO is mandated with governing the exchange of information. Therefore, it sets up
policies that govern how information is acquired, exchanged or used.
 Second, it can keep track of the use of information. In so doing, any stakeholder who
breaches the policies is held accountable.