Optimizing Patient Data Transfer Processes in Healthcare Settings

Managing and transferring large and often sensitive datasets is a routine yet critical task for healthcare organizations. Practitioners and administrators regularly share substantial files containing sensitive personal health information (PHI) that must be sent not only securely and reliably, but also quickly. 

So how should healthcare organizations send large files? 

There are several ways to gauge a file transfer method or service, including speed, reliability, security, compliance with data privacy regulations, ease of setup, user friendliness, and its ability to handle massive files. Each of these factors is crucial for helping healthcare organizations efficiently manage their data transfer needs.

Handling Large Datasets

From genomic sequencing files to high-resolution medical images and videos, healthcare professionals work with extremely large files of several gigabytes (GB) or even terabytes (TB) every day. These large files must be sent and received in a secure manner that ensures the integrity of the data but doesn’t slow down other essential operations.

• A file transfer service for healthcare must be able to handle unlimited volumes of file transfer data with no limits on file package size or how much data you can send. 
• The file transfer service should provide a dedicated transfer highway by riding a private accelerated cloud network that bypasses the public (slow) internet.
• File transfer software that uses a dedicated file transfer app allows you to avoid topping out at the maximum speed of your web browser. 
• Additional file transfer tools can help improve latency, including file transfer scheduling, speed limits, and transfer priority. 

Ensuring Security

Adequate security is crucial when handling PHI, personally identifiable information (PII), and other sensitive healthcare data to be compliant with regulations such as HIPAA. File transfer services should offer robust identity and access management (IAM) functionality and access controls to authenticate and authorize users, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and granular user permissions that can be centrally managed. 

File transfer platforms should also use encryption protocols such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to secure data both during transmission and at rest. This ensures that even if the data is intercepted, it remains unreadable to unauthorized parties. 

Finally, the service should operate on secure infrastructure and incorporate measures such as regular security audits, employee security awareness training, product security measures such as regular code scans and automated logging and verification of admin access, and customer protections such as the enforcement of strong passwords. 

These precautions are essential to prevent data breaches, safeguard against cyber threats, and maintain the integrity and confidentiality of the healthcare data being transferred or stored.

Reliability

All the speed and robustness in the world doesn’t amount to much if your file transfer service isn’t reliable. 

Errors, corruption, or interruptions can occur during any file transfer, which can lead to potential failure. File transfer platforms need effective error handling mechanisms to detect and recover from any potential issues, but many file transfer services don’t re-send data packets if they arrive corrupted (or don’t arrive at all). 

A reliable large file sharing service shares files in chunks and uses checkpoint restart combined with automatic relentless retries until file transfers are complete. That way, if your transfer encounters network interruptions or packet loss, the service only needs to resend a chunk, doesn’t need to restart the entire transfer from scratch, and automatically retries the transfer until it’s finished.

Automatic checksum verification can also help ensure data integrity. This verifies that the version of the chunked file received by the recipient is the same as what was sent.

Compliance with Data Privacy Regulations

Data privacy is a key concern for file transfers in all industries but is especially important for protected healthcare data. While adhering to general data privacy regulations such as HIPAA, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), other data management regulations should also be taken into account. 

SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are two important data security standards that deal with the storage, processing, and transmission of customer data. While not legally required, SOC 2 and ISO compliance lets you know that your file transfer vendor follows data privacy best practices and takes responsible customer data management seriously.

Seamless (and Easy) Setup and Configuration

Any file transfer service provider can look great on paper, but if it can’t integrate with your existing systems or if it takes weeks to properly onboard the service (or your team), it’s likely not worth the hassle. 

Unfortunately, setting up and maintaining most HIPAA-compliant file transfer services can be an arduous task with a large IT burden (and corresponding expense). Consumer-grade file sharing apps can’t handle large files, and most enterprise transfer platforms require complex software installations, server access, plugin and firewall tweaks, and port forwarding, which takes even more IT bandwidth and can pose a security risk.

Review the provider’s capabilities and ensure the product can work directly in a browser with no complex software installations, and that it allows you to collaborate with external teams without granting access to internal systems.

Ease of Use

A file transfer service has to be simple for business users of all technical proficiencies—otherwise, it’s likely they’ll try to default to insecure workarounds that could put your organization at risk. A needlessly complex file transfer process can also lead to user error, which (especially in the healthcare world) could also pose a significant security and compliance risk. 

Sending a large file of several GBs (or TBs) should be done in the browser and be as simple as sending an email. Your file transfer service should also offer tools to remove even more potential friction from the file transfer process, such as no-code integrations with popular cloud storage platforms and the ability to automatically send transferred files to specific recipients or your storage of choice.

Transferring Large Healthcare Datasets Should Be Fast, Easy, and Secure

Handling large healthcare datasets requires a robust and reliable file transfer service that’s fast, reliable, secure, and compliant with stringent data privacy regulations. It’s imperative to select a service built on secure cloud infrastructure, with strong IAM tools such as MFA, and that sends and stores files using strong encryption to prevent data breaches. Such a hardened security posture helps healthcare clients stay compliant with industry regulations, such as HIPAA, and is crucial to protect sensitive healthcare data. 

The service should also be easy to set up and use to improve productivity and user uptake, and to minimize potential security risks from misconfiguration or user error. By prioritizing these factors, healthcare organizations can safely and efficiently manage the transfer of large datasets, safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining regulatory compliance.