The ÖÄK appeals to learn the right lessons from yesterday’s warning shot. “The outages showed us how vulnerable and dependent on technology we are.”
Vienna (OTS) – Harald Schlögel, Executive Vice President of the Austrian Medical Association, appealed to learn the right lessons from yesterday’s IT failures, which caused problems worldwide: “These large-scale failures have shown us how vulnerable our systems can be and how dependent we are from digital solutions. Even if the problems in the Austrian hospitals and ordinations have been limited, every postponed operation is one too many.” Schlögel therefore appealed to the current and future federal government to set the highest standards for data protection and data security for health data. “In addition, when implementing new digital solutions, it is not only important to involve doctors as service providers who work with these tools on a daily basis. Maximum quality and safety requirements must be met right from the start. One step would be to create a national competence center that can determine and review the necessary quality and certification standards. We doctors see ourselves as having a particular obligation towards our patients and the security of the data we collect.”
Precautionary measures for hospitals
Harald Mayer, Vice President of the Austrian Medical Association and Federal Curia Chairman of the employed doctors, summed up: “Yesterday’s incidents underline how important analogue backups are for hospitals. In this way, patient care can be secured.” Crisis management plans and staff training are also essential precautionary measures. “It is gratifying that where problems did arise, they were able to be kept as short and small as possible and many areas of care remained completely undamaged. “Nevertheless, we should be particularly vigilant with regard to such failures,” says Mayer, who also called for support from politicians.
For Dietmar Bayer, deputy chairman of the Federal Curia for Resident Doctors (BKNÄ) and president of ÖGTelemed, the IT failures show “how important it is that we have the GIN access network on which the e-card services run.” This runs separately from the Internet and meets the requirements of the Health Telematics Act and the GDPR. In addition, updates are only installed after detailed checking; no failures in the e-card system were reported yesterday. Nevertheless, it is important for ordinations to have emergency plans ready despite all the digitalization. “This means, for example, keeping paper forms such as blank e-prescription forms on hand in order to be able to withstand a failure of up to one day,” advises Bayer.
Bayer also referred to the IT security concept, a service tool from the BKNÄ that uses self-evaluation to help doctors in private practice to determine whether the ordinations meet the security standards – and where there is a need for improvement. “With this free tool, practicing physicians can meet their legal obligation to record their data security measures as conveniently as possible,” says Bayer.
SERVICE: IT security concept available at https://itsicherheitskonzept.aerztekammer.at
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