By EHRA Standards & Interoperability Workgroup
One of the goals of the 21st Century Cures Act’s health IT provisions was to enable patients to have secure access to their electronic health information using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) advanced that objective when it published its May 2020 Final Rule, which specifies HL7(R) FHIR(R)-based standards that health IT developers (as well as provider organizations developing their own solutions) will be expected to implement so that patient can access their health data using apps of their choice, connected to APIs. But how can patients be assured that their health information is secure once it leaves the EHR?
Health data are among an individual’s most sensitive information, obligating all members of the healthcare community to protect patient privacy by ensuring secure data exchange. This blog post will review how the ONC standards for patient access can enable best practices to securely share patient health data.
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In the midst of a healthcare crisis like COVID-19, the furthest things from the minds of many may be cybersecurity. 
It’s not news that, from the front line security analyst to the CISO level, there’s a shortage of skilled healthcare cybersecurity staff. 
Just as healthcare clinical staff recognize the value of good physical hygiene to prevent infection, good cyber hygiene can prevent malware infections. 