On 27 April 2016, Econocom announced it had become an accredited hosting provider for personal healthcare data. This accreditation is a testament to the group’s expertise, enabling it to work with highly sensitive medical data, which is critical for supporting innovation and digital transformation projects in the healthcare sector. In a recent interview in Belgian online magazine Le Vif, Laurent Casu, Medical Business Unit Manager at Econocom, talked of the benefits of digitalisation for both healthcare professionals and patients.
“We firmly believe that digitalisation in healthcare is a major social issue, like the digitalisation of education, an area we are also very active in. Speeding up the deployment of digital in the medical sector will bring about considerable progress in all areas.”
According to Bruno Grossi, Executive Director of Econocom, digital should be leveraged to increase medical efficiency, which is why the group continues its “active development strategy in this high-potential market.”
Obtaining accreditation for hosting personal healthcare data, which is issued by the French Ministry of Health, on the recommendation of the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, France’s regulatory body in charge of ensuring compliance with data privacy laws, Ed) and ASIP Santé, involves fulfilling very specific criteria. It is also crucial, in light of the increasing digitalisation of the healthcare sector and the potentially devastating consequences of the integrity of certain data being compromised. Security of confidential data is also essential for developing new e-healthcare apps, a booming market.
=> Also on our blog: What are the implications of healthcare data security? Interview with Cedric Cartau
DATA SECURITY: A vital ISSUE
With electronic patient records, telemedicine, equipping medical staff with state-of-the-art technology and using data analytics to optimise bed occupation in hospitals, the possibilities for using data in healthcare are endless. But given the sensitive nature of the data, security is paramount. Beyond privacy issues, the real risk for hospitals is integrity of data, and the recent proliferation of Ransomware can have disastrous consequences for patients.
Econocom has been active in this buoyant market since 2009, as Laurent Casu explains:
“We realised we needed to specialise in this area, or at least identify the needs and issues that would change.”
innovation In healthcare: A TAILORED APPROACH REQUIRING A SECURE environment
Econocom’s healthcare expert goes on:
“A lot of hospital environments today are disparate, with doctors travelling back and forth between different sites. There’s no duplication, electronic records are becoming increasingly common. We need to incorporate a new methodology and appropriate new technological tools, particularly digital. The aim is to go 100% paperless, optimise outpatient care and improve surgical techniques with ultra-expert procedures, which take less time and ensure greater patient comfort and easier recovery.”
The more digitalised healthcare is, the more innovation there is, and the greater the need for security. And yet startups can’t always ensure security for the medical data it handles, which is why accredited healthcare data hosting providers are needed to support the ecosystem, as Laurent Casu says:
“Obtaining this accreditation reinforces our credibility as an integrator and will enable us to attract developers and companies who want to work together but don’t have the resources to protect sensitive data.”
But in order to be effective, these innovations require working closely with the medical staff, in order to develop applications that address their needs and make their job easier, instead of complicating it with new processes. As Laurent Casu sums up:
“Innovation is pointless unless it addresses a need in terms of use, a professional use. And that means establishing a dialogue with all the people involved.”