Secure messaging platforms hold immense potential in digital healthcare today. It lies at the heart of enhancing communication between patients and doctors. These platforms not only keep sensitive health information well-guarded but also guarantee effective exchange with others. This builds trust and assuring better collaboration among the patients and health providers. The important features regarding this are end-to-end encryption and secure user authentication. Which ensures that the communication is accessible only by persons who should have access. While the data of patients remains safe from breach.
At Orthoplex Solutions, we develop fully compliant messaging platforms. Integrated with strict healthcare regulations such as PHIPA and HIPAA that ensure extreme data privacy and security measures. Such solutions will protect the patient’s information. And also build a trusting relationship between patients and service providers by further engaging patients.
In the next few minutes, we will discuss what secure messaging in healthcare is and how to implement it in your healthcare business.
What is secure messaging in healthcare?
Clinical messaging involves the use of encrypted digital platforms. As it facilitates the secure exchange of sensitive patient information among authorized health professionals.
It ensures the transmission of messages with Protected Health Information or PHI in compliance with standards. Such as HIPAA among other regulatory standards that ensure confidentiality for the patient.
It also enables seamless and confidential sharing of information among health organizations. Which facilitates the delivery of clinical documents and other major data. With the conventional modes of fax and email becoming less secure, secure messaging stands as a much safer route to keep privacy and security concerning healthcare communication intact.
The following are the advantages of secure messaging in healthcare:
What are the advantages of secure messaging in healthcare?
It is a challenge for healthcare providers to integrate efficient modes of communication into the health sector. Secure messaging in healthcare has emerged as an essential solution. As it can balance security with efficiency both at the hospital and clinical levels.
Improved Patient Engagement and Satisfaction
Health centers proved improvement in the patient experience when they implemented secure messaging. This technology helps patients connect with providers more quickly, easily, and securely. About this, a timely response may be accorded to patients. Without them having to wait or visit healthcare facilities many times, thus becoming satisfied and contributing to overall better care.
Lower Administrative Costs
This is because secure messaging reduces administrative costs simply by automating processes. Healthcare workers will manage and share patient records digitally. Hence reducing paper flow and freeing up time for quality patient care. It also allows for communication across departments to make operations lean and economical.
Improved Patient Care
You can use secure messages to share medical records, images, and other relevant health information. Only, between health professionals in support of coordinated care. Remote patient monitoring becomes available and reduces frequent face-to-face visits by patients. Especially those who have problems with mobility or those too affected by the pandemic.
Increased Privacy and Data Security
This includes most importantly fragile information regarding patients, medical records, and test results. Secure messaging encrypts the information with embedded two-factor authentication that only gives access to those with authority. This prevents encrypted access to patient information regarding cyberattacks or identity theft.
Smoothening Scheduling in Hospitals and Clinics
Secure messaging enables hospitals and clinics to arrange appointments with security, reduce waiting time, and make good use of the staff resources available . All while ensuring patient privacy and security of communications about them.
Evidence that all five points above are true, is the fact that many hospitals are resorting to secure messaging applications. This is due to security and privacy concerns, according to a study published by the National Library of Medicine. The study measured 19 vendors and placed them into three tiers based on the functionalities of basic secure communication. All through integrated clinical application, and dedicated communication systems.
Advanced functionalities were less important when you compare it to basic functionalities: such as advanced security and communication within an organization. The study highlights the importance of considering clinical workflows, mobile device management, and Wi-Fi architecture. During the selection process of a secure messaging platform. It remarks that such applications conform to HIPAA standards. Hence improving clinical collaboration and efficiency, showing the increasing usage of secure messaging in healthcare.
If you want to understand how such a security messaging platform can benefit your healthcare business, keep reading!
How Does Secure Messaging in Healthcare Impact Professional Communication?
Real-time Collaboration
Secure messaging platforms provide professionals with instant collaboration through chat, audio, and video calls internally and outside the organizational circles. Professionals can even invite and connect with third-party organizations. Even if it is irrespective of the used communication tool in those organizations while keeping sensitive data secure during external communication.
Secure by Default
It provides end-to-end encrypted communication for both direct messages and group chats. Built-in security protocols such as two-factor authentication (2FA), strong password policies, and automatic session timeouts help safeguard patient information and sensitive healthcare data, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations and minimizing potential security risks.
Full Control Over Your Data
Depending on the needs of their data sovereignty and industry regulations, organizations can deploy their secure messaging platforms either in the cloud or on-premise. With a self-hosted server, all messages, files, and data shared within an organization remain under that organization’s full control.
Capability to Verify, Audit, and Comply
It allows complete traceability through audit trails and reporting due to the need for assurances in meeting healthcare regulations such as HIPAA or PHIPA. Third-party encryption keys offer full control to identify the sender and receiver, thus providing data security.
Interoperability and Integration
The integration of various project management platforms, such as Trello, Asana, and Monday.com, into secure messaging systems significantly enhances workflow efficiency. These integrations allow for seamless task tracking, collaboration, and access to essential resources within healthcare environments, all while maintaining strict data security and compliance with privacy regulations.
User-Friendly Experience
Despite advanced features of safety, secure messaging platforms function and feel just like any other messaging application would. They do not require any extensive training to operate. The fully featured platforms offering file sharing, creating polls, sending stickers and emojis, and even voice messages, all of which help make the user experience of healthcare professionals smooth and efficient.
By adding secure messaging into the mix, medical staff have made sure that communication flows effectively, securely, and in conformance with all requirements, hence improving both internal workflows and patient care.
Having a better view of secure messaging platforms and how they can be a help for your healthcare business, let’s delineate below 5 key features of any secure messaging platform, brought by Orthoplex.
5 Must-Know Features of Secure Messaging
Most of the messaging applications claim themselves to be “secure.” There is more than just end-to-end encryption in place when it comes to choosing a secure messaging app. It’s a baseline for security, with an extra layer of protection that you should look for if it’s going to be truly secure. Here is a quick guide to five key features to look for when choosing the right service for yourself or your business.
1. End-to-End Encryption
The very foundation of any secure messaging over the internet has to be end-to-end encryption. This means that any data being transmitted between the two users is encrypted by the sender’s device, and can only be decrypted by the receiver’s device. The messaging platform itself then acts as the “blind messenger,” passing information along without actually having access to it. Since the company does not have access to the cryptographic keys, neither the company nor any third party can access the messages; hence, complete privacy.
2. Server Storage Encryption
While transport-level encryption secures messages in transit, server-side encryption protects data resting on the app’s servers. This allows a second layer of defense in case the server is ever compromised. It happens that some other unauthorized entity can often misplace devices loose or steam them. Therefore, servers are generally more secure to store data on. In that case, even if an attacker manages to successfully access the server, with server-side encryption, the attacker cannot read the data.
3. Self-Destructing Messages
One of the popular features of secure messaging applications is setting a timer on messages so that they self-delete after a certain period, thereby minimizing leakage of sensitive data once the data becomes no longer useful. But again, it may be worth noting whether the application deletes the message or keeps it on the server. Claims of immediate deletion, for example, motivated the action by the Federal Trade Commission against Snapchat in 2013, after it was proved that messages were retained for 30 days despite marketing to the contrary.
4. Restricted Sharing
Many of these secure messaging platforms operate on a limited-sharing policy wherein one is not able to forward, save, or screenshot the media or messages shared. It is one of those critical features for any enterprise business or an individual dealing with highly sensitive information, as it restricts any probable accidental or intentional leakage of data to a person outside the circle of the intended recipient. It also means controlling what the user does with the information, and hence the feature can make sure that it keeps the data confidential.
5. Remote Lock & Data Wipe
The ability of administrators to lock or wipe platform data remotely is one of the most extensive security features applied to messaging applications within business environments. If a device is either lost or stolen, the administrator may be able to lock the app remotely well in advance to avoid unauthorized access. Extremes come in the form of remote data wipes, which entails erasing all sensitive information off the device. This is particularly useful in maintaining security compliance and protecting sensitive data against a breach.
While encryption from Silver to end is important, added layers include server storage encryption, self-destructing messages, restricted file sharing, and remote lock & wipe. Each of these features must be weighed in choosing a secure messaging platform where your data will have complete protection against unauthorized access. Safeguarding your communication might require an investment in a messaging platform with additional measures that are described herein for extra peace of mind.
These features exist in more than one platform, and it is wise to get introduced to those platforms. The following are crucial for the context of the discussion:
6 Crucial Platforms for Secure Messaging
For secure messaging in healthcare, there are quite a few platforms that offer HIPAA-compliant solutions with some quality security features. Here are some of the key platforms for ensuring that sensitive patient data remains protected while still enabling seamless communication. Here are some top alternatives:
1. Twilio
Twilio is a leading platform for adding messaging, voice, and video capabilities to custom applications. With HIPAA compliance and end-to-end encryption, Twilio enables healthcare providers to develop secure, customizable communications solutions that can easily integrate with other systems. Highly versatile, it’s the go-to choice for many developers when secure messaging in healthcare is needed.
2. SignalWire
For such real-time communication, the choice would be the use of the SignalWire API-based platform, be it messaging, voice, or video. Like Twilio, it is also a HIPAA-compliant platform that does well in healthcare applications where secure messaging is practiced. It is flexible and scalable, thus very ideal for healthcare providers who intend to develop personalized communication systems.
3. Vonage (formerly Nexmo)
Vonage provides HIPAA-compliant messaging, which it offers through APIs within healthcare apps. It enables healthcare providers to improve communication and better connect with patients through secure messaging, video, and voice. Their focus on reliability and scalability makes them a perfect option for large healthcare organizations when approaching the topic of building secure messaging infrastructure.
4. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a reliable company with strong security. The HIPAA-compliances messaging APIs for Voice, SMS, and Messaging from Bandwidth are flexible for various healthcare applications. Privacy and data protection are included to make it a trusted option to solve healthcare messaging solutions.
5. Doxy.me
Doxy.me is a telemedicine platform that’s integrated with secure messaging. It’s HIPAA-compliant, particularly for healthcare providers, and assures seamlessness in experiences between the patients and the doctors. Other than secure messaging, it also has video and voice calling, hence making it pretty ideal for virtual consults.
6. OhMD
OhMD is a healthcare-focused messaging platform offering HIPAA-compliant communication tools, including secure text messaging, patient reminders, and telehealth. It finds extensive applications in clinics and hospitals to advance the cycle of communication while adhering to compliance with healthcare privacy regulations.
Each of these platforms provides an assured solution in health care to ensure that sensitive patient information is protected while supporting effective communication in medical settings.
While it is important to know about the great features and adding that secure messaging platforms will add to your business, it is not less important to be aware of the risks that you might put your business through if you don’t adopt a secure messaging platform.
Do You Risk Your Healthcare Business with Unauthorized Channels?
Using personal messaging apps and unauthorized communications channels that are unsecured and untrackable may make your business prone to being non-compliant, thus leading to heavy fines.
Violation of Regulatory Compliance
Health organizations operate in the spotlight as far as information confidentiality is concerned, and the set laws by legislation like HIPAA demand that patient information be treated as private. Because these unauthorized channels are not specially designed to keep the data secure, it is impossible to avoid non-compliance with patient data privacy, hence attracting huge fines from authorities.
With the perspective that Wall Street financial firms have been fined over $2 billion because of non-compliant messaging, financial ramifications have an impact beyond just the bottom line, regarding damaging the brand reputation.
Data Breach and Cybersecurity Threats
Sudden communication tools are generally less secure and more susceptible to cyber-attacks. Even popular business communication platforms, such as Microsoft and Slack, have been subject to growing attacks in recent years, putting sensitive data at risk. With these platforms becoming increasingly targeted, their usage without rigid security may mean that organizations expose themselves to high vulnerability and probable data breaches, which might result in identity theft, fraud, and loss of patient trust.
Lack of Audit Trails
Most unofficial channels are devoid of valuable tracking or auditing capabilities, which can make monitoring communications for compliance or investigations of possible breaches quite difficult. Such an absence of visibility may prevent your organization from taking the right action upon a security incident and further increase vulnerability.
Compromised Patient Care
More importantly, critical information could either not be passed on or miscommunicated with the unofficial messaging apps used by the health providers. These delays or misunderstandings due to insecure channels have been directly affecting patient care and outcomes, therefore having detrimental impacts on health services.
Increased Liability
This means liability can increase in case one’s organization suffers from data breach issues or non-compliance matters. In such a case, this results in expensive patient settlements about legal actions on compromised information, thus causing damage to the business reputation.
Loss of Patient Confidence
Patients expect that any healthcare professional will guard the confidential information they entrust to them. Sending unauthorized messages through other channels creates an impression of carelessness, leading to the erosion of trust, which is one of the main reasons why relationships with patients cannot be long-lasting.
Giving top priority to secure, compliant messaging solutions is giving your organization protection from these aforementioned risks and upholding the trust of your patients.
By now, you should be able to decide on a secure messaging platform for your healthcare business that will present no risk for you. Here is how you are able to apply the best practices to ensure an optimum result of the secure messaging platforms.
Best Practices of Secure Messaging for Health Professionals
Following are some of the best practices that a health professional should consider for maximum security in secure messaging. These practices range from protecting sensitive patient information to maintaining compliance with regulations such as HIPAA. In detail, here is what one should do:
Understand HIPAA Compliance
Significantly, healthcare providers familiarize themselves with the requirements and guidelines concerning HIPAA. Reading compliance updates regularly will help you understand what is expected of you regarding the information on patients’ privacy and security.
Understanding HIPAA will further equip you with the capacity to make decisions about messaging practices and protocols in a manner that is secure. Being knowledgeable and informed about HIPAA will allow you to make competent decisions about such best practices and protocols that ensure the security of messages.
Use Encryption
Yes, again! Encryption goes hand in glove with patient information security.
This way, even when data falls into the wrong hands, unauthorized users will not be able to access it. This, therefore, calls for investment in secure messaging platforms where developers treat encryption with the seriousness it deserves.
Always Verify Recipients
Because of this, verify information about the recipient before sending anything sensitive; secondly, use secure messaging where the system is set up so that recipient verification is inherent, to avoid accidentally letting something out. Taking that extra step toward verifying recipients goes a long way toward preventing access to patient data from reaching recipients that the information is not intended.
Avoid Texting Protected health information (PHI)
Healthcare providers should not send Protected health information (PHI) through SMS or via unsecured channels. Use designated messaging platforms for health communications that are secure. This will make the information provided have the required security to retain its privacy and accord with existing law on record.
Use Strong Authentication
Authentication to these messaging platforms should be strong. The introduction of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) will give an additional amount of security.
Use strong and unique passwords, and whenever possible, use biometric authentication. Regular updates to authentication credentials could improve the security features against unauthorized access a little more.
Provide Regular Training
Continuous education indeed plays a major role in setting security awareness in healthcare. Regular training on identifying potential security risks, understanding best practices, and recognizing phishing attempts should be provided to the staff. In addition, the training must focus on cybersecurity and each member’s role in the protection of patient information.
Establish Clear Policies and Procedures
Accordingly, establish clear policies and procedures for using secure messaging within an organization. Guidelines on acceptable use, breach handling, and proper channels of communication should be provided. Since established protocols are in place, healthcare professionals are in a better position to comprehend the usage of secure messaging.
Audit Messaging Activities
It is also vital to perform regular auditing and monitoring of the messaging activities so that they are in line with security protocols. Logging should be implemented in these features to track who accessed what information and at what time, so detection and addressing security breaches can be proactive.
The best practices in short will encompass the following:
- HIPAA compliance.
- Message encryption
- Validation of the recipient’s identity.
- Avoiding PHI in channels where security is not warranted.
- Strong authentication.
- Regular training.
- Well-articulated policies, and monitoring messaging activities.
Consequently, health professionals will significantly enhance the security of their messages and safeguard against unauthorized access to patient data. Secure messaging should be a priority for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive health data.
Secure messaging platforms represent an advancement in general patient care in the healthcare industry. Here is how:
Advancing Patient Care through Secure Communications
Introduction of the secure messaging platforms has advanced patient care in the healthcare industry. Such platforms enhance communications among providers and from providers to patients, making for better outcomes with more efficiency. Here is how secure messaging is changing patient care:
Improved Collaboration
Handling patients always involves lots of communication among doctors, nurses, and other professionals in the health arena. Secure messaging platforms offer real-time conversations without putting confidential information about patients at risk. Such collaboration makes sure that anyone involved in the care of a certain patient would be on the same page for better decision-making and continuity of care.
Faster Response Times
Seconds count in urgent medical conditions. Secure messaging allows the delivery of appropriate and critical information in the most timely manner possible, thus providing healthcare providers with a quick and effective response. Such timely communication may be lifesaving, as it leads to timely interventions and updates about the condition a patient is in without which necessary actions can get delayed.
Improved Patient Engagement
They also open more avenues for engagement, even for the patients. They may even contact the doctors themselves via messaging platforms regarding their queries about their disease or other symptoms, book an appointment, or ask for their test reports. This level of patient engagement would build a more active and much stronger relationship between the patient and his/her provider, improving adherence to treatment plans and cultivating better health knowledge.
Increased Efficiency
Secure messaging reduces reliance on more traditional methods of communication, such as telephone calls and face-to-face meetings. This can therefore make the practitioner more productive and have time to practice the care directly to patients rather than management duties, which facilitates an appropriate healthcare delivery system.
Data Protection and Compliance
Because security is placed first, secure messaging ensures that all communications are compliant with regulations such as HIPAA. The protection of sensitive health information instills confidence in the patients and providers that one’s data is safe while he or she engage with the healthcare team.
This would, in short, mean that secure messaging for patient care revolutionized the approach, created better collaboration and faster response times, engaged more patients, allowed for efficiency, and ultimately protected data. In the future, evolving healthcare will find these platforms indispensable in their provision of quality, responsive care.
While it all sounds great, execution might not be as simple. If you need support customizing your healthcare service messaging platform, feel free to read more about Orthoplex’s Approach to Ensuring Healthcare Data Security Apps.
Being in the field for a lot of years, we can share with you some of the results we noticed for our clients who proceeded with a customized secure messaging platform.
Orthoplex Experience with Secure Messaging: Results and Advantages
Trust is the foundation of the physician-patient relationship. However, with the exponential growth in technology, protecting the confidentiality of patient information has been a hot-button topic. Secure messaging platforms not only offer an enabling environment but also help in gaining the trust and engaging the patient. The following are the three mainstays that depict the outcomes of secure messaging:
Developing Trust through Secure Messaging
At its very core, you should nurture trust. By making sure sensitive patient data is secure and never compromising it. The more effective you design secure messaging solutions with deep insight into the healthcare landscape and its many challenges. Utilizing a solution that’s within HIPAA’s strict guidelines will provide trusted assurances. These assurances do not allow breach of data in communications between providers and patients, enhancing patient trust greatly.
In addition, encryption is the stronghold that shields sensitive information. A solution with end-to-end encryption implies that even encrypted messages cannot be accessed. Hence creating room for confidence and improvement in the patient experience. You should also safeguard the patient’s privacy. This happens when you adopt secure messaging features. In a manner that allows personal health information protection to keep all stakeholders responsible for doing so. And therefore, informed about the newest healthcare security and privacy practices.
Safe Communication for Engaged Patients
A well-functioning healthcare ecosystem provides an environment in which patients can seek and provide valuable engagement. Secure messaging makes crucial contributions to such improvements in engagement. Reliable channels of communication allow patients to become active players with healthcare providers, with their relations based on mutual trust and open lines of communication.
Secure messaging also enhances the communication between patients and providers. Thus, patients are more likely to express their concerns, ask questions, and adhere more closely to medical instructions. In addition, secure messaging can help healthcare providers deliver a more personalized experience that leads to higher levels of patient activation and satisfaction.
A Positive Impact on Revenue Cycle
These advantages of increased trust and patient engagement have repercussions in the healthcare revenue cycle. With such open lines of communication, it ensures a smooth administration, reducing delays and decreasing operational costs, hence optimizing revenue.
The patients, too, will stay in service much more with a health caregiver whom they know they can have trust in, thus ensuring a loyal patient population, very key in ensuring a regular stream of revenue. In addition, you can use secure messaging for preventive care encouragement, hence potentially reducing emergency visits plus their associated costs, which furthers the benefit to the revenue cycle.
Secure messaging platforms make clients trust them and enjoy the process of engagement incredibly by protecting patient information and facilitating smooth communication. Improved patient outcomes, higher practice revenue, and, in the end, a healthier and more efficient healthcare ecosystem is the result.
Final Thoughts
Secure messaging platforms are the dawn of change to redefine better care for your patients and safeguard data security. Integrating such advanced solutions in the healthcare practices will help communicate with healthcare providers and between providers and patients. This builds trust, which thereby increases patient activation and satisfaction toward better health outcomes.
We also know that every health organization is unique in needs and challenges. That is why we are committed to working with you side by side to build a secure messaging system that fits your unique operational needs. From compliance to ease of communication, to improving patient engagement-whatever your needs are-our seasoned experts take you through it.
We can only imagine what a secure messaging platform could do for your organization by improving patient care and ensuring stronger data security. We’d love to show you how we can tailor secure solutions to meet your unique healthcare business needs. Let us hear from you today, and we will see just how we can work together to develop an ideal secure messaging system for your operation. The process is easier with our experts at your side each step of the way; that way, you can certainly reach your goals!
