Managed Services for Healthcare IT Infrastructure

Managed Services for Healthcare IT Infrastructure

Businesses are looking for alternative ways that will:

  1. Help them cut down on their expenses.
  2. Not affect their ability to provide the desired experience or service to their clients.

Are you a doctor or a medical practitioner? Do you rely on traditional IT companies for all your data requirements?

Just like every other business today that has ongoing support for its IT requirements, clinics, medical specialist centers and hospitals need it on a regular basis. From equipment that needs to be kept up and running, to precise cybersecurity measures, IT support services prove useful in numerous ways. However, not all businesses can manage these tasks in-house. Outsourcing IT and utilizing a third-party Managed IT services provider, to monitor your infrastructure can effectively fulfil these tasks.

Understanding Managed IT Services

The term ‘Managed services’ deals with the hiring of external organizations for a comprehensive support system. These non-traditional services adopt a holistic approach and help with a wide range of tasks rather than only delegating narrow and specific ones.

To put it into perspective, regular IT service providers take the tasks that you have outsourced to their organization. However, in the case of managed services, you are promised thorough and exhaustive strategic assistance. They take over your IT Infrastructure and provide overall management along with trained personnel and professional advice on improvements that ensure long term success and future proofing.

Traditional Support vs Managed IT Services: What is the difference?

Before we go further, it is essential to understand the basic differences between traditional IT support systems and Managed services.

Traditional I.T. Support

  1. This kind of IT support is commonly called the “Break-fix” kind of support. It is called so because the problem is fixed by the service providers upon initiation by the user at the help desk. It could also mean that waiting until the IT support group is only available, thus tying up the service offering during the standard business hours and days, i.e. incurring down-time.
  2. Traditional support could be outsourced or offered in-house. In-house models are basically used by small scale businesses that do need or wish to invest in outsourcing.

Since they are not very technical in the nature of services they provide, such businesses do not see the need for IT infrastructure to be available at every minute.

  1. Traditional service providers are the right solution if
  2. Your business is not growing in complexity.
  3. Frequent upgrades are not essential.
  4. Regular training and special skill sets are not required to maintain your applications.

Managed I.T. Services

  1. These services are offered by a third-party provider who takes care of all (or some, as per your requirement) your applications. They are called the “always on” kind of services as they provide coverage options that offer services at any time of the day. Instead of reacting only when something breaks, the Managed service team is always on the job, working in the background. This enables them to find a disruption in the functioning early and hence employ proactive solutions.

  1. In the Managed Services model, the user is always backed up by a team of highly qualified and technical experts, specifically appointed to deal with the user application. This implies that you are offered the latest and current skill sets. This is highly advantageous as it cuts down the costs of training and upskilling which need to be borne in case of a traditional IT support model.

  1. Another beneficial factor in deploying Managed services is that the contract between you and the company covers both responsiveness and issue resolution. Meaning that you can stay assured of the continual functioning of your applications. They also provide great governance along with timely reports on the performance of your applications. The data could be used in identifying and working on operational pain points, thereby ensuring foolproof future planning.

Importance of Managed IT Services

1.   Uninterrupted Care

Medical Practitioners are not the only people who need to continuously evolve during these difficult times. Health care IT systems are also facing multiple challenges regarding infrastructure maintenance. Uninterrupted monitoring is the need of the hour. Managed Services promise to provide such sustained care to your systems.

2.   Affordability

Expenditures have always been a concern in the health care sector.  Managed services are available at affordable prices, which means your expenses do not overshoot your budgetary limitations. They can also be scaled up and down as per your needs and demands.

3.   Social Distancing at its Best

With greater social distancing being the new norm, Managed services would be the safest way to go about managing your IT. One of the top duties of managed services, i.e. data center management along with upgrades and necessary maintenance can be taken care remotely. This is crucial for effective optimization of expenditure as well.

4.   Reliability

These challenges intensify the requirement for reliable services that can take care of all IT support for clinics, medical specialist centers and hospitals. Managed services are hence the perfect solution to a clinic’s needs of cloud deployments, collaboration tools and security, mobile initiatives, etc.

5.   They Take Care of Application Vulnerabilities

Most organizations are not able to keep up with the number of security patches needed for their applications. A managed service proactively takes care of the same and ensures a seamless application experience that is free from vulnerabilities. Cyber threats can prove disastrous therefore, data securityfor clinics can be ensured only by “always on” managed services. Since the downtime can be very costly, cyber security is taken seriously by managed services as against the traditional setup wherein proactive monitoring is absent. 

6.   It can Help Your Business Grow

From business applications to infrastructure, everything is powered by IT support. The design, implementation, management support that IT solutions can offer is often remarkable. This can become a huge burden for those businesses that lack employees with technical knowledge. Outsourcing such IT requirements then gives your business access to technical expertise. It also frees up your employees’ burden so they can put their best into work of a higher value.

7.   Peace of Mind

Apart from everything – effective management, cutbacks on expenses etc. – you can run your business peacefully without the worry of any data breach or security vulnerabilities from external IT threats.

BRT – I.T. for HealthCare Simplified

At BRT, we provide reliable and affordable healthcare IT services to our clients, suited to their unique needs. With our timely solutions to all your problems, you can leave your IT worries aside and focus on your core business. Our specialization lies in providing high quality, outsourced managed services.

Are you looking for a solution that provides sturdy data backup for your clinic? We understand how crucial that is, and our focus is on prioritizing data security. Our team of highly qualified engineers realize how valuable your data is and work around the clock to keep your patients’ medical records secured.

As with most businesses in the world of managed services, there is no” one size fits all” solution. A company might only need security services from a provider, or they might want to outsource all the IT needs. As an IT Managed Service provider, our product suite are able to serve every all the IT needs and requirements.

Dr Tech™ takes pride in proactively providing and managing infra/device and on-site technical support. We patch your devices along while also offering invaluable insights into how your systems work and how they should be working ideally, thus ensure your business can focus on your core offering without worrying about IT outages and productivity.

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Dr Backup™ is our solution to your data problems. We help protect and retain your data safely. You can trust us with all data sizes, ranging from ones as small as individual files to as large as your entire database. We provide additional layers of redundancy that greatly enhances the security and accessibility in case of a breach. Subscribe to Dr Backup today to take advantage of the state-of-the-art technology that our services offer!

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Dr Security™ offers both network and user security. We take care of all your IT resources and deliver top notch security. Our systems work on prevention and detection of network intrusions, eradication of virus and spam, filtration of content and traffic analysis, giving your business a robust and advanced technological security provision. We take care of all your IT resources and deliver top notch security. Place your trust in Dr Security™ to get the best cybersecurity services and leave your worries aside! 

Conclusion

The information technology needs in the workplace is an ever-growing phenomenon and is getting every more complex every year. One example of this is the number of gadgets/devices that employees depended on to finish their work. About 20 years ago, employees had access to workplace technology only when they were at work. Nowadays, employees can work from home and have access to workplace technology from several devices. Thus, arose the demand for solidly built IT support systems to ensure that the company data is safe and secure.

Managed services are not a substitute. They are a highly effective mode of partnership that is designed in order to cater to the exclusive needs of each organization. Businesses in the current, changing world need nothing less than the best IT solutions with the strength and foresight to face whatever comes next!

For more information or a free consultation email us at contact@brt.com

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Cybersecurity Services for the Healthcare Sector

In the modern world, digital information has become the quickest, most convenient way of recording and sharing data. The healthcare sector is no exception.

Generated data from bio-informatics, healthcare devices, medical sensors, digi-medicine, among other fields, have come to the forefront of the healthcare sector, with all storage and sharing easily done in digital format.

However, the key issue with digital data is the risk of data theft and information manipulation.

Manipulation of medical information can result in fatal incidents that can ruin your clinic’s reputation or practice.   Hackers can advance their sights on all kinds of healthcare data to their advantage, thus cybersecurity in this sector is of utmost importance.

But what is cybersecurity?. Why is it important?. How can you secure your healthcare data?.

What is Cybersecurity?

As a large minority healthcare practitioner have shifted to digital data models to store, retrieve, and modify their medical information,  the magnitude of data security breaches has grown exponentially causing severe damages.

Cybersecurity is the combination of technologies and IT practices that reduce the chances of malicious parties breaching your infrastructure and gaining access to your data.

Also known as data security, cybersecurity aims to prevent intrusions by hackers into your IT infrastructure and reduce the chances for such malicious parties to gain viewing or editing access to valuable healthcare data.

Why is Data Security for Healthcare Important?

The healthcare sector yields some of the most valuable pieces of information.  Some of the most critical healthcare data types includes:  

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a global standard for the storing and sharing of digital medical imaging  information.

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) contains crucial private data about the health of patients and their medical history.   

As hospitals and clinics worldwide are adopting DICOM-based devices, hackers have set their eyes on DICOM data to target patients and extract/manipulate critical information .  Similarly, gaining access to patients’ EMR, hackers are using phishing attacks, they are able to  gain an unlawful advantage of such patients’ vulnerability.    

Such damages caused by the lack of cybersecurity practices in the healthcare sector has reached such an extent that the Singapore Ministry of Health has issued guidelines on cybersecurity practices to be maintained by healthcare companies.

The guidelines also give general regulations to follow, such as two-factor authentication and healthcare companies putting a greater focus on their data’s cybersecurity, as well as stipulating “An advanced security operation center or cyber defense center should be established to improve the ability to detect and respond to intrusions.”

So, what does it take to maintain complete data security?. How do we properly manifest cybersecurity for medical data that not only adheres to the provided guidelines but takes a step further and ensures complete privacy and security of critical healthcare data?

Best Practices for Cybersecurity

There are three main components to ensure complete integrity and security of your healthcare data:

1.  Anti Virus
Today, the function of antivirus is far more than just scanning files on your machines.

An antivirus should provide internet protection to block malicious web content. It should provide complete security against external storage drives and data on the cloud.

But most importantly, your antivirus should have the capability of scanning healthcare files, which are unique file types unknown to a majority of the people and antiviruses out there.

Choosing an antivirus that is prepped to face cyber-attacks on a healthcare system can significantly reduce low- to mid-scale attacks on your healthcare data.

2.  Firewall
The firewall is a part of the network security infrastructure that regulates and monitors the data packets coming to and going from your healthcare devices.

A firewall’s job is to ensure that data coming from an outside source to your healthcare devices is harmless. It is the first line of defense for your healthcare devices.

Therefore, using firewalls that strengthen your medical device network is fundamental to the cybersecurity of your data. 

3.  Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VA/PT)
The final pieces to data security are vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.

Vulnerability assessment is the evaluation of your cybersecurity infrastructure. It encompasses the identification and classification of vulnerabilities remaining in your system and prioritizing security measures, its strengths & weaknesses against the same.

A penetration test (pen test) is a simulated cyber-attack on your infrastructure to identify how much attack-load your system can bear and the major threat areas.

VA/PT is the most crucial component to identify vulnerabilities and scale up your defense system. Coupled with the right antivirus and firewall, your healthcare cybersecurity profile can be  prepared to a great extent to face multiple cyber-attacks!

Dr Security™ – Managed IT Service 

A Managed IT Service is a way for healthcare practitioners and businesses to take complete care of their data security and protection, including its backup & infrastructure support.

It allows a reliable company that already has all the necessary IT system infrastructure setup, the best qualified and experienced system engineers in protecting healthcare data!.  

As an IT Managed Service provider, our product Dr Security™ will be able to serve every all the cybersecurity needs and requirements.

Dr. Security™  is a managed IT service that caters to all your cybersecurity needs. By outsourcing your cybersecurity management to Dr. Security™, your business can focus your core offering without worrying about cyber threats and data breaches.

With user security and network security, the right antivirus selection and firewall installation, and ready infrastructure, Dr Security™ gives your data the most secure environment!

Dr. Security™ also sets up your healthcare business with the best VA/PT certified testing houses and gives you detailed reports on the magnitude of security of your data.

We also provide round the clock tech support and continuous, ongoing preventive maintenance; you are free to research and practice within the healthcare sector while we ensure your data is in the right hands.

Moreover, depending on the number of end-users, devices, security feature sets, and manageability coverage of your healthcare business or practice, Dr. Security™ offering comes in three tiers: Lite, Full, and Complex, catering to healthcare businesses of all sizes.

Catering to healthcare businesses of all sizes, Dr Security™ maintains the regulations set by the Singapore Ministry of Health and takes it further to provide total integrity of your healthcare data.

All that without having to maintain a staff, build infrastructure, or invest any time at all thinking of data security. That is the advantage Dr Security™ gives your healthcare business!

Final Words

Information in the healthcare sector is perhaps the most valuable digital data.  Cybersecurity services for the healthcare sector have been long overlooked and is extremely vital to your business continuity.

With Dr. Security™, clinics, medical centers and healthcare practitioners such as yourself can rest assured that your data is safe from malicious parties.

With well trained and experience certified system engineers continually upgrading the security level for your data, outsourcing medical data security with Dr. Security™ allows you to prevent medical IT cybersecurity hacking intrusion without having to invest time and effort into maintaining a data-security staff!

To simplify the IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other digital services such as data backup and damage prevention for your healthcare business, get in touch with us by leaving your contact information.

We hope this post was informative and insightful. If you have got something to share, we’re eager to hear you out in the comments section!