CynergisTek is partnering with Protenus, developer of analytics for patient privacy monitoring. Together, the companies hope that Protenus' AI-powered analytics platform along with CynergisTek's Patient Privacy Monitoring Service will help health systems get a better handle on their protected health information.

WHY IT MATTERS

The partnership is meant to help the many providers still grappling with the challenge of how to know where their data is, who has access and when.

Protenus data shows that nearly one-quarter of all breaches in Q3 of 2018 came from insiders. There are many ways to protect against such threats. Monitoring programs with analytics technology are a critical defense mechanism.

In 2014, for instance, CynergisTek CEO Mac McMillan told us about a case where a nurse was trying to send patient records via email to review at home. The potential breach was caught thanks to data loss prevention technology.

DLP software "discovers and indexes where your sensitive information is," he said. "Then, based on the rules that you specify, in terms of where it can live, where it can go, how it has to be transmitted, what devices it can go on, it basically watches what people are doing."

ON THE RECORD

Protenus CEO Nick Culbertson said in a statement that the partnership aims to help health systems maintain patient privacy monitoring programs by combining its technology with CynergisTek’s expertise.

"Data privacy is evolving as a dominant theme in conversations, both in healthcare and other industries, and health systems need to take an end-to-end approach to patient privacy to truly address this complex and mission-critical challenge," said McMillan in a statement.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

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