A survey conducted by Accenture in association with American Medical Association (AMA) reveals that every 8 in 10 doctors in the United States have experienced cyber attacks in their clinical practices. The surveyed physicians also admitted that not enough Cybersecurity support is being rendered by the government that holds them responsible for a data breach of patient information.
AMA researchers have discovered that a staggering 83% of physicians out of the surveyed 1,300 doctors say that they were extremely concerned that future attacks could not only interrupt their clinical practices but can also put an end to their entire career.
“If a patient record is leaked and falls into the hands of the bad guys, then the patient will surely sue the practitioner for the information leak which could make a physician financially paralyzed forever”, said David O Barbe, AMA President.
Barbe feels that the government, technology, and medical association would have to provide more support to physicians to proactively enable their cybersecurity defense strategies to better ensure the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of healthcare data.
Accenture survey findings show that the most common type of cyber attack experienced by physicians happens to be phishing- cited by more than half of the practitioners who have experienced an attack; followed by computer viruses(48%).
A significant majority of physicians said that a more holistic approach is needed for assessing and prioritizing risks as HIPAA compliance alone is not sufficient to contain risks.
Additionally, the survey discovered that nearly two-thirds of all the surveyed physicians who experienced an attack have gone through a downtime of more than 4 hours causing equivalent loss to patients as well as doctors &staff.
Note- Accenture survey commissioned by American Medical Association was carried out to raise awareness and understanding of cybersecurity practices among US Physicians.
More details are available on the official website of AMA!
