Solutions for the security of your medical data

Teleconsultations have developed a lot since the COVID-19 health crisis, in particular to simplify the work of overworked medical staff. This is how he uses more and more applications such as Skype, WhatsApp or FaceTime to carry out these teleconsultations. But what about security?

Is your data secure with WhatsApp?

With more than 2 billion users, WhatsApp messaging is one of the most popular. It now falls under the administration of the famous social network Facebook. Facebook is notably known for using the data of its users through cookies to send them relevant advertisements. This practice contributes greatly in bringing great profits to the society.

WhatsApp claims that the messages users send are fully encrypted. But since its acquisition by Facebook, one can ask the question whether this is still the case. Facebook wanted to be reassuring on this subject, and for the moment, the encryption seems to be still relevant. However, when using the application, we are often confronted with the dissemination of messages whose content turns out to be false. And, it is to be deplored that no control by an official body is exercised at this level precisely because of the encryption of the data. In other words, the absence of control has the effect of increasing misinformation.

L’alternative HEALPHI

You should know that, as WhatsApp is an American company, the IT control bodies have very little power over it. These include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL). As for the storage of medical data in France, its management must be entrusted to an approved host. Medical data is stored on dedicated servers called HDS (Health Data Hosting) to which restricted access is subject to control. Benefiting from cryptographic type protection, the data is thus guaranteed against falsification and perfectly secure.

On the other hand, WhatsApp’s storage servers do not benefit from all these guarantees. However, other possibilities exist. HEALPHI is a start-up headquartered in France that can be an alternative for storing your medical data. The servers used by HEALPHI are HDS certified and therefore allow you to consider the creation of files and the exchange of data in complete security. Similarly, it is possible to schedule your teleconsultations and telemonitoring without fear of breaching the confidentiality of exchanges with patients. Thanks to the HEALPHI software, you are able to set up care files. You can then incorporate things like medical data, documents, photos, and prescriptions into it. These can be made available to the staff of a firm, for example.

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