Although the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still cloudy, there is such a thing as a "sure bet" for healthcare consultants and their clients. Regardless of when and how the Trump Administration proceeds with "repeal and replace" legislation, or Executive Orders that tweak the ACA, advisory for the Internet of Things (IoT) and the resultant demand for cybersecurity consulting will continue to surge.
The shift toward consumerism in the healthcare industry is not going away, nor is the drive for better and higher quality medical outcomes. Both of these necessitate healthcare players to have better insights about their customers (for both better customer service/patient experience, and for population health analytics). IoT is a necessary tool to drive these data insights. As such, the healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries for IoT devices from EHRs to health apps, to remote monitoring devices, and everything in between. In addition to the devices themselves, there is a new push to share data among partners in the healthcare ecosystem including payers, providers, pharmas, and other new market entrants (technology companies for example) for better collaboration and insights. All of these new data connections and inputs create great promise but also inherent risks.
Consultants will be called upon to work with their clients to create effective IoT integration strategies with sound design, and implementation. There will also be a special focus on embedding security layers into the devices, and technology infrastructure to ensure that new cybersecurity risks are managed proactively.
