Ali Pabrai to speak at Healthcare Expansion Congress Middle East in Abu Dhabi

Cyber security and compliance expert, Ali Pabrai, CISSP (ISSAP, ISSMP), CSCS, CEO of ecfirst, and member of the USA FBI InfraGard, says:

"The risk to medical records is rising and the consequences of not taking reasonable and appropriate steps to protect this information are not insignificant, especially with current enforcement actions and associated penalties. Further, today's infrastructure is just too vulnerable and introduces a serious risk to the health care organization."

This risk to medical records is emerging in Middle Eastern countries such as the UAE, which recently launched its new health information system, Wareed.

Wareed will automate all healthcare processes and link all UAE 14 public hospitals and 68 affiliated clinics via an online network by 2011. Doctors and nurses will have access to each patient's record, while patients will be able to view their own records online. Even as Wareed contributes to improving medical care and ensuring patient safety, such systems can potentially put patients' confidentiality at risk. Careful monitoring and safeguards such as correct staff training are essential to prevent possible fraud and abuse.

"Medical privacy is a critical component of quality medical care. Patients seeking care at a hospital or a health system today are concerned that their private medical information may be accessed inappropriately. It is for this reason that States such as California in America have introduced further legislation to assess and enforce fines against health facilities and individuals who inappropriately obtain, use or disclose medical information," explains Pabrai.

The UAE authorities will surely look to the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which proves to be an efficient regulation to avoid any misuse of medical records, as a model for the region. The government of the UAE has been a leader in adopting similar legislative protections for citizens in healthcare and other sectors.

"The average cost of a healthcare data breach in the U.S. is $282 per record, with an average expense of $6.6m to the organization. This is a real cost to an organization. Further, the significant rise in medical identity threat, attention to regulations such as the U.S. FACTA, enforcement and penalties associated with HIPAA and American State regulations, is resulting in increased executive attention to addressing the risk to medical records," says Pabrai.

Pabrai will present the full details of his research on medical records safety in an exclusive session at Naseba's 4th annual Healthcare Expansion Middle East Congress, taking place in Abu Dhabi on May 26th-27th 2009, Pabrai will examine specific examples of breaches that have occurred recently and will explain the critical steps that a healthcare organization must take to address compliance requirements for securing medical records.

Simon Conyers, Senior Manager for Healthcare conferences at Naseba, said, "With programmes to digitize patient records well under way throughout the Middle East region, concerns about how these records will be safeguarded are of paramount importance. Naseba is delighted to be hosting Ali Pabrai - America's foremost expert in such matters - for the 4th annual Healthcare Expansion Congress in Abu Dhabi, to address this critical area of concern."