As healthcare services transform, cybersecurity issues must be addressed proactively.
Given that the elderly population is concentrated in rural areas and medical resources are centralized in cities, how to address the imbalance and disparity in urban-rural medical resources through the enhancement of technological equipment and network frequency has become an important issue. The "zero-contact" services during the COVID-19 pandemic have brought telehealth back into the spotlight as a key issue. By integrating technology, cloud computing, computer processing, and the internet, various medical needs can be addressed and medical services provided, leading to three models:
1. Two points, one line: e.g., online consultations.
2. Single point, mobile: healthcare personnel entering communities to provide services.
3. Data movement: using physiological data recording devices to record and manage personal health information.
Taiwan's telehealth trend is similar to international trends, as medical problems across countries share commonalities. However, to achieve optimal medical efficacy, platforms, software, and IoT medical devices need to be customized and integrated to suit different regions, target populations, and behaviors. Therefore, the technological tools required for telehealth need to be highly flexible, capable of shaping different unique medical behaviors, and also consider ease of use. Simplifying complex technology and integrating it into people's lives is currently a goal for many countries.
Taiwan's telehealth has developed over the past decade, with diseases creating problems, problems driving technological development and applications, and technology and applications building business models. Through these business models, appropriate medical services can be delivered to target populations in need. Industry, government, and academia are strengthening various aspects of this model, hoping that telehealth can gradually mature through this process.
While communication, cloud, and technology are pushing telehealth to new heights, the preservation of data and the accuracy of information are paramount. This can be broadly divided into two aspects: the accessibility of data in the database, and whether data in transit can be properly protected by enhancing privacy through encryption and translation. Telehealth service providers initially prioritize scale development and service innovation. However, once a cybersecurity crisis occurs, their security and economic profitability will be significantly impacted. Currently, the common approach is to set up platforms on the hospital's private cloud, keeping information within the hospital's firewall. Connectivity, transmission, and integration are managed by VPN (Virtual Private Network) access controls. As telehealth technology and regulations gradually mature, telehealth can be realized under existing regulations and cybersecurity safeguards.
The cybersecurity protection process for telehealth needs to consider both medical timeliness and accuracy, allowing users to choose appropriate strategies based on the current situation to provide the most suitable medical resources. In other words, cybersecurity protection should be flexible, varying according to data type, confidentiality, transmission method, and distance, with different regulations for different scenarios. The more sensitive the data, the lower its fluidity and the harder it is to obtain. Therefore, finding a balance between data accessibility and cybersecurity, making compromises and trade-offs, is the most pressing issue for Taiwan in developing telehealth.