Advocacy Coalition Framework Lens on Pressing Healthcare Issues

In deciding how to interpret and understand public policy, many experts use theories and frameworks to justify their reasoning. One of the most common avenue of viewing policy involves the advocacy coalition framework based on its broad applicability. This popular framework consists of banding like-minded individuals together into a coalition to advance the narrative by creating acceptable policies for their group. These coalitions normally include a wide range of professional backgrounds from interest groups, elected officials, researchers in academia. These groups utilize special events to influence subfields consisting of actors who decide the solutions for policy problems. Subfields normally are made up of key players employed in government institutions and private industrial groups who willingly agree to work toward a compromise with the goal to create policy acceptable for both sides (Cairney 2014) These coalitions influence the subfield in different ways through capitalizing on their influential power or by ignoring the alliances and mergers of the groups. This paper shall explore how advocacy coalition framework works for three pressing issues facing the healthcare industry. These three policies focus on drug pricing, heath data privacy and opioid liability. This paper will explore the policy in depth, provide historical context and the major players while outlining how the specific proposals fit in the framework as well as identifying the framework’s limitations with the policy

Cybersecurity in Health Systems: Challenges, And Proposals

The new rise in network safety breaks in medical care organizations has put patients' security at a higher risk of being uncovered. In spite of this danger and the extra danger posed by such incidents to patients' safety, as well as functional and monetary dangers to medical care organizations, few studies have deliberately analysed the cyber security risks in medical care. To establish a strong starting point for medical services organizations and policymakers in better comprehension the intricacy of the issue of cyber security, this study investigates the significant sort of cyber security risks for health care organizations and makes sense of the roles of the four keys (cyber attackers, cyber defenders, developers, and end users) in cyber security. Finally, the paper studies a group of recommendations for the policymakers and health care organizations to reinforce cybersecurity in their organizations

Double Secret Protection: Bridging Federal and State Law To Protect Privacy Rights for Telemental and Mobile Health Users

Mental health care in the United States is plagued by stigma, cost, and access issues that prevent many people from seeking and continuing treatment for mental health conditions. Emergent technology, however, may offer a solution. Through telemental health, patients can connect with providers remotely—avoiding stigmatizing situations that can arise from traditional healthcare delivery, receiving more affordable care, and reaching providers across geographic boundaries. And with mobile health technology, people can use smart phone applications both to self-monitor their mental health and to communicate with their doctors. But people do not want to take advantage of telemental and mobile health unless their privacy is protected. After evaluating the applicability of current health information privacy law to these new forms of treatment, this Note proposes changes to the federal regime to protect privacy rights for telemental and mobile health users

Double Secret Protection: Bridging Federal and State Law To Protect Privacy Rights for Telemental and Mobile Health Users

Mental health care in the United States is plagued by stigma, cost, and access issues that prevent many people from seeking and continuing treatment for mental health conditions. Emergent technology, however, may offer a solution. Through telemental health, patients can connect with providers remotely—avoiding stigmatizing situations that can arise from traditional healthcare delivery, receiving more affordable care, and reaching providers across geographic boundaries. And with mobile health technology, people can use smart phone applications both to self-monitor their mental health and to communicate with their doctors. But people do not want to take advantage of telemental and mobile health unless their privacy is protected. After evaluating the applicability of current health information privacy law to these new forms of treatment, this Note proposes changes to the federal regime to protect privacy rights for telemental and mobile health users

The Data Breach Dilemma: Proactive Solutions for Protecting Consumers’ Personal Information

Data breaches are an increasingly common part of consumers’ lives. No institution is immune to the possibility of an attack. Each breach inevitably risks the release of consumers’ personally identifiable information and the strong possibility of identity theft. Unfortunately, current solutions for handling these incidents are woefully inadequate. Private litigation like consumer class actions and shareholder lawsuits each face substantive legal and procedural barriers. States have their own data security and breach notification laws, but there is currently no unifying piece of legislation or strong enforcement mechanism. This Note argues that proactive solutions are required. First, a national data security law—setting minimum data security standards, regulating the use and storage of personal information, and expanding the enforcement role of the Federal Trade Commission—is imperative to protect consumers’ data. Second, a proactive solution requires reconsidering how to minimize the problem by going to its source: the collection of personally identifiable information in the first place. This Note suggests regulating companies’ collection of Social Security numbers, and, eventually, using a system based on distributed ledger technology to replace the ubiquity of Social Security numbers

Cyber risk in health facilities: A systematic literature review

The current world challenges include issues such as infectious disease pandemics, environmental health risks, food safety, and crime prevention. Through this article, a special emphasis is given to one of the main challenges in the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cyber risk. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has detected a dramatic increase in the number of cyber-attacks. For instance, in Italy the COVID-19 emergency has heavily affected cybersecurity; from January to April 2020, the total of attacks, accidents, and violations of privacy to the detriment of companies and individuals has doubled. Using a systematic and rigorous approach, this paper aims to analyze the literature on the cyber risk in the healthcare sector to understand the real knowledge on this topic. The findings highlight the poor attention of the scientific community on this topic, except in the United States. The literature lacks research contributions to support cyber risk management in subject areas such as Business, Management and Accounting; Social Science; and Mathematics. This research outlines the need to empirically investigate the cyber risk, giving a practical solution to health facilities. Keywords: cyber risk; cyber-attack; cybersecurity; computer security; COVID-19; coronavirus;information technology risk; risk management; risk assessment; health facilities; healthcare sector;systematic literature review; insuranc

Cybersecurity Emerging Technology Skills Gap Analysis

This report is focused on cybersecurity and will analyze the current and emerging technology workforce in southeast Michigan. Where appropriate, national comparisons are included as well. This report builds upon and updates the original Cybersecurity Skills Gap Analysis published by WIN in 2017 in connection with the Office of Economic Adjustment, Department of Defense.This report was published by the Workforce Intelligence Network with support by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation

Cyber Threats and Healthcare Organizations: A Public Health Preparedness Perspective

Healthcare in the United States, heavily reliant on digital technology in service provision, has recently seen an increase risk of cyberattacks. Coordinated electronic medical records, imaging, pharmaceutical services, lab services and even treatment devices all rely on electronic connectivity and represent critical services that must be secured from cyber threats. Hospitals have become increasingly complex systems, and this often makes the organization more vulnerable to failure. Planning for these events is often hard for hospitals because their main charge is to provide life-saving care to patients as they need it. This is a relatively new threat to healthcare organizations, and there has not been limited research on this hazard and its impacts on healthcare organizations. Therefore, the aim of the first study was to assess the trend of successful major malware attacks on healthcare organizations in the United States between 2016 and 2017. Previous research found limited research specific to malware attacks and found most articles covering ransomware were restricted to news articles. A content analysis was conducted on articles from two well-renowned health IT organizations. This study identified 49 attack cases across 27 states. Based on previously reported statistics, the number of identified cases was low meaning healthcare organizations are not reporting their attacks. A true risk assessment cannot be completed by the industry until a more representative trend analysis can be completed. The aim of the second study was to assess the organizational outcomes of a malware attack on a healthcare organization. Previous research on this health hazard discussed healthcare’s lack of preparedness for this new threat but did not delve in to the organization’s response, mitigation, and recovery from attacks. Therefore, qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from three organizations that suffered malware attacks during the years 2016-2017. Topics covered were system impact, system recovery and business continuity, and changes to organizational preparedness efforts. One of the main findings from this study was the realization by health stakeholders how connected their organization, and therefore the provision of care, has become. Participants also discussed their lack of full understanding on the potential impact these attacks could have on their organizations before their attack, including the loss of every digital system within their facility. A need was expressed across all facilities that more information about these attacks need to become shared across the industry to better prepare organizations and protect patient safety. The final aim of the final study was to examine organizational preparedness efforts and to identify the organizational barriers to mitigating the threats arising from cyberattacks. A survey was conducted among healthcare emergency mangers to assess their perceptions of preparedness for cyber threats. While the majority of respondents reported feeling either confident or very confident in both their individual and their organizational ability to respond to a cyber attack, their responses regarding preparedness actions their organization has taken against cyber threats were lacking. When it comes to events like ransomware, where attack impacts are still not fully understood, the healthcare industry remains less prepared. In conclusion, these studies indicate a need for data related to cyberattacks to be collected in a central repository that is either made public or shared among healthcare stakeholders. In order to best prepare their organizations, there needs to be accurate risk assessments completed and areas for preparedness with the best return on investment can then be identified. Cyberattacks are only expected to increase over the next five years. Patient care is put at risk during each of these attacks and it is essential for healthcare organizations to be better prepared for this new hazard to keep the organization\u27s patients, workers, and community safe

Cyber Babel: Finding the Lingua Franca in Cybersecurity Regulation

Cybersecurity regulations have proliferated over the past few years as the significance of the threat has drawn more attention. With breaches making headlines, the public and their representatives are imposing requirements on those that hold sensitive data with renewed vigor. As high-value targets that hold large amounts of sensitive data, financial institutions are among the most heavily regulated. Regulations are necessary. However, regulations also come with costs that impact both large and small companies, their customers, and local, national, and international economies. As the regulations have proliferated so have those costs. The regulations will inevitably and justifiably diverge where different governments view the needs of their citizens differently. However, that should not prevent regulators from recognizing areas of agreement. This Note examines the regulatory regimes governing the data and cybersecurity practices of financial institutions implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Department of Financial Services, and the General Data Protection Regulations of the European Union to identify areas where requirements overlap, with the goal of suggesting implementations that promote consistency, clarity, and cost reduction