In the US, safeguarding private patient healthcare information is paramount. It is the reason we have as many laws around it as we do. But it has become challenging for these laws to keep up with the technology. In recent years there have been continuous data breaches leaking sensitive healthcare data. This can sometimes be in the tens of millions like in 2022 when around 28 million healthcare records were exposed. With today's EHR systems, telehealth rise, and continued expansion of wearable health devices this concern is everpresent.

While we belive that these advancements are an overall positive, there needs to be more done to secure them. Many healthcare companies employee other third parties to handle their cybersecurity. While this practice can be good there are multiple studies to show that around half of these data breaches and leaks occur due to human error. This can sometimes be a mistake their own employees make. Implementing laws that require companies holding healthcare data to give security training to employees could drasticly reduce the amount of sensitive patient data leaked.

Our group feels it is morally good to continue the practice of these electronic health records but the government and healthcare companies are falling short on their obligation to patients in protecting it.

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