HLTH 3300 - Cybersecurity in Health Information Administration

This course will provide an introduction to the field of cybersecurity in the context of healthcare information exchange and administration. Students will gain understanding of monitoring and protection policies and procedures necessary as health information exchange occurs inside of healthcare delivery networks and systems and between and among them. As interoperability of disparate electronic health records (EHR) systems increases exchange of patient data, the importance of understanding the causes and the prevention of breaches of personal health information (PHI) is a necessary competency of healthcare administrators. Students will study the protection and monitoring procedures in alignment with known best practices and HIPPA requirements. The proper use of passwords, multi-factor authentication, applying multiple types of security models and generally protecting the network and the cloud-based datasets related to health information exchange and population health research will be covered. A basic introduction to the history and current state of cryptography will be covered in the course. Protecting EHR and other personal health databases from cyber attacks and how to recognize and address attacks will be introduced. Students will also be exposed to known best practices for mitigating and recovering from healthcare system data breaches. Protection of research and EHR data in the research environment will be covered and students will study the concept of “ransomware” and other data theft approaches dangers in the context of health administration.

Hours:
3