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Even as telehealth services are gaining popularity, a significant number of healthcare organisations are facing security concerns from patients, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.
According to a survey report by Kaspersky, 91 per cent of medical organisations have already implemented telehealth capabilities. Among these, 44 per cent of organisations have started to use them after the pandemic.
At the same time, 52 per cent of respondents have experienced cases where patients refused telehealth services due to security concerns.
Additionally, 56 per cent of healthcare institutions are planning to increase their investment in telehealth and virtual care solutions.
Kaspersky surveyed healthcare decision-makers to learn how the digital transformation of the industry is going and which problems they believe should be solved to ensure affordable, quality care for everyone.
Findings
The report further stated that 71 per cent of global respondents believed that telehealth services will add the most value to the healthcare sector within the next five years.
"Professionals note that remote medicine is practical and attractive in many ways, with advantages such as immediate reach, less disease transmission between patients and staff, and the ability to help more people in a smaller time frame," it said.
Furthermore, almost half of organisations (42 per cent) agreed that most of their patients are more interested in remote than in-person sessions because of their convenience.
"Other attractive telemedicine features for customers are that modern technologies save time, effort and money and provide the opportunity to consult with a more experienced specialist," as per the report.
These advantages of telehealth services have led to them becoming more popular among patients of all age groups. 51 per cent of providers said that the majority of their organisation’s patients using remote services are under the age of 50.
Services
In terms of the type of services provided, the most common service provided by organisations is synchronous telehealth (51 per cent), such as real-time communication with patients, including video call or chat. The second most popular service is remote patient monitoring via wearable devices (41 per cent), followed by asynchronous telehealth (39 per cent) technology. This method collects and stores patients’ data in a secure cloud-based platform for further use by a treating professional.
74 per cent of respondents experienced cases where patients have refused a video call with medical staff, with 52 per cent reporting that people declined telehealth services due to privacy or data concerns. Other reasons cited included a general lack of trust towards telehealth (33 per cent), unwillingness to appear on video (32 per cent) and the absence of correct equipment (30 per cent).
Apart from this, 81 per cent of healthcare providers state that clinicians in their organisation have expressed concerns related to patients’ data protection when conducting remote sessions, and only 36 per cent of respondents are very confident that their organisation has the necessary security measures.
“Trust has always been important to the healthcare sector. But today, as more and more medical organisations rely on technology and digital offerings to support their services, patients also want to feel confident about the privacy of their medical data," said Evgeniya Naumova, Executive Vice President, Corporate Business, at Kaspersky.
"That means the level of trust within the industry is inextricably linked to a provider’s ability to ensure the safety of the sensitive information they collect, share, and store. With rapid development and complexity making the healthcare industry more lucrative to malicious actors, now is the time for healthcare institutions to make cybersecurity their first priority," added Naumova.
According to Naumova, organisations should evaluate their current level of defense, and adopt the appropriate solutions and tools.
Survey size
"This way, they will build a brighter future where distance or cybersecurity risks won’t be a barrier and everyone can receive high-quality medical help,” said Naumova.
Kaspersky commissioned Arlington Research to undertake quantitative online research amongst sole or joint decision-makers working for frontline healthcare service provision (including telehealth) for new technology implementation, digital transformation or developing strategy for new technology.
It conducted 389 interviews globally with representation across North America, Europe, MEA, APAC, LatAm and Russia and CIS.
The survey was completed across 34 countries.
170 interviews were completed with enterprises with over a 1000 employees with the remainder of interviews from organisations with 50-999 employees.
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