New blog post: Certification Program Protects Patient Privacy and Organizational Trust
A new blog post authored by James Merlino, MD, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at The Joint Commission, talks about Responsible Use of Health Data™ (RUHD) Certification. This certification sets up guard rails and provides guidance for healthcare organizations to safely use properly de-identified patient data for purposes beyond clinical care, known as secondary use.
Reflecting the surge in the secondary use of data, nearly 85% of U.S. hospitals have the capability to export their patient data for reporting and analysis. These data can be used internally for research, clinical and operations improvement, and the creation of registries. The data also can be exported externally to third parties for the development of new therapies, treatments and technologies. The ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has expanded the potential uses of data while creating new complexities governing data usage.
While HIPAA provides guidance for de-identifying data, there is no governance overseeing how healthcare data is gathered and transferred to a third party. Due to this void, healthcare organizations are struggling to validate their data management practices and seeking guidance on how to protect patient privacy and their organization against abuses.