Abstract

Healthcare represents a significant segment of the US economy. In 2016, total health expenditures reached $3.3 trillion and are projected to grow to 5.6% per year until 2025 (CMS, 2016). Per Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services statistics, the 2016 figures translate into $10,348 per person or 17.9% of the gross domestic product of the nation. The use of in healthcare organizations is believed to alleviate the expenditure while increasing the overall quality of patient care. HIT services involve the use of technology to provide healthcare as well as to enable the comprehensive exchange the digital health information (Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2015). This chapter introduces and discusses some issues related to the digitization of health sector. Section 13.1 summarizes regulations Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) that started the digitization. Section 13.2 discusses the three-step evolution of digital records: adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), EHR-to-EHR information exchange, and EHR–personal health record (PHR) information exchange. The challenges and opportunities introduced by mobile devices (smartphones, tables, etc.) are presented in Sections 13.3 [mobile health (mHealth) applications] and 13.4 [mobile device management (MDM) and bring your own device (BYOD)]. Section 13.5 reviews the ransomware attacks and disaster recovery plans (DRPs) as a countermeasure. The user perspective of digitized health industry is reviewed in Section 13.6.