By BRIAN C. EVANDER, Esq., and MICHAEL R. LOWE, Esq.

Technological advances continue to grow exponentially, and the healthcare industry is no exception. Whether streamlining healthcare operations through new system designs and software, lowering costs and enhancing quality of care through new devices and procedures, or utilizing new solutions in marketing personalization such as through artificial intelligence or blockchains, healthcare technology in 2019 is set to take a huge step forward.

For instance, the telehealth industry is on the rise both in Florida and the nation as a whole. The ability to receive clinical care long-distance has been warmly received by patients. The increased accessibility to health care providers, coupled with the ability to sidestep potential delays they might otherwise face due to busy lifestyles if the patient were required to travel to a provider to receive care, has led to exponential growth in the telehealth field. The telehealth industry is projected to reach $3.5 billion in revenue by 2022.

One significant hurdle to telehealth's growth has been lack of resources - specifically, lack of digital devices such as tablets and computers. This has led healthcare providers to increasingly rely upon patients to provide and use their own smart devices to access telemedicine apps and provide data to the providers. These devices include smartphones as well as a variety of everyday devices that are connected to the internet. Such internet-ready everyday devices, referred to as part of the Internet of Things (IoT), include wearing technology such as smartwatches and sensors that track a patient's movement, heart rate, and a variety of other data. Patients with lifestyle diseases such as diabetes are increasingly turning to wearable technology (for instance, Fitbit) to monitor their glucose, physical activity levels, heart rate and sleep patterns, and both patients and healthcare providers are able to use this data to better understand the patients' health conditions.

IoT devices can assist healthcare providers in a variety of additional ways. A doctor can remotely monitor a post-op patient's condition, for instance, or a hospital administrator can utilize wearable sensors to track bed occupancy rates as patients enter and exit the hospital. Even an entire subbranch of telemedicine technology devoted to monitoring patients recovering from a stroke, telestroke technology, has emerged. From 2014 to 2018, patient use of mobile and tablet health apps rose from 13 percent to 48 percent. Data from such IoT devices can be analyzed by artificial intelligence for purposes of long-term diagnosis and support, and as patient adoption and healthcare provider adoption of such devices continues to grow, the algorithms used to drive such diagnosis and support will likewise become more sophisticated. Advances in artificial intelligence are not limited to analysis of IoT data, of course. Developments in IBM's Watson AI currently include testing to discover those in need of medical intervention relating to opioid addict issues.

Blockchain technology is likewise developing increased utility in the healthcare industry at a rapid pace. While perhaps best known as a vehicle for cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, blockchain has numerous applications beyond acting as digital funds. Blockchain, for instance, can act as a secure and immutable ledger of data, a robust database with time-stamped continuously updated and highly encrypted records and information. In the context of a healthcare industry that suffers from security breaches daily, or for healthcare providers who find themselves being accused of altering patients' records, the possibilities of blockchain are obvious.

Telehealth, IoT integration, artificial intelligence and blockchain all represent ways in which healthcare technology has evolved and will continue to advance in the coming months. With new innovations comes new risks, however.

While telehealth raises the bar on convenience for patients, it likewise raises concerns among governmental agencies and entities overseeing the safe administration of healthcare such as the Florida Department of Health, and the specifics of the telemedicine system of a practice or practitioner are crucial to analyzing whether or not such a system, and the care and treatment provided remotely to patients via same, is compliant with applicable state and federal law.

While blockchain can securely store a virtually immeasurable amount of data in tamper-proof records, a breach of the blockchain's security (for instance, through access credentials being compromised due to human error caused by lack of proper education and training by the covered entity of its employees) could allow that virtually immeasurable amount of data to fall into unauthorized hands, creating a "megabreach" scenario and triggering extensive reporting requirements both to all affected patients as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, and likely causing the breached covered entity to incur hefty penalties and costs to mitigate the damages of the breach.

New developments in healthcare technology are rapidly providing innovative advances in the delivery of care and treatment to patients while enhancing the health care delivery experience for both patients and their treating providers and professionals. These developments are likewise reshaping and facilitating health information storage and databasing to an extent previously thought untenable. These developments raise corresponding new challenges that must be met, both in terms of sharing data and access to physicians' and providers' data bases by payors and health device/equipment manufacturers, as well as managing care and treatment and being compliant with both HIPAA's privacy and security regulations and Florida medical record confidentiality, privacy and security laws.

Meeting these challenges and ensuring compliance with applicable statutes, rules, and laws will require careful assessment and analysis by knowledgeable health care counsel, and we are proud to offer such services as health law continues to advance alongside technological innovations in the healthcare industry.

For other healthcare related legal information click here to learn about physician employment agreements.

Michael R. Lowe, Esquire, a board-certified health law attorney, and Brian C. Evander, Esq., regularly represent providers, physicians and other licensed health care professionals, and facilities in a wide variety of healthcare law matters at the law firm of Lowe & Evander, P.A.

For more information regarding healthcare law and such matters please visit our website www.Lowehealthlaw.com or call our office at (407) 332-6353.