The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT plans to help small- and medium-sized physician practices secure their smartphones and other mobile devices, Government Health IT reports.
Will Phelps -- an IT security specialist at ONC's Office of the Chief Privacy Officer -- said small- and medium-sized practices might not have staff or vendors to manage their mobile devices. "We want to get them to a point where their devices are operating as securely as possible," he said.
Project Details
Kathryn Marchesini -- an attorney at OCPO -- said that for the first phase of the project, ONC will describe scenarios or use cases that offer practical information about mobile device security. The scenarios will cover topics such as:
- Using mobile devices in a coffee shop;
- Sending e-mails via mobile devices; and
- Responding to health care providers who seek to bring their own mobile devices and connect them to a physician practice's network.
For the second phase of the project, ONC plans to test third-party security tools to determine how effectively they protect data on mobile devices. The agency also plans to design an outreach campaign to promote education and training on mobile device security.
In addition, ONC plans to develop best practices for securing mobile devices and publish such guidance online this fall (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 6/13).