UKCloud Health Offers HIPAA Compliant Cloud Hosting

London – 06 June 2017 – UKCloud Health, the specialist healthcare division of UKCloud, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today announced that its cloud hosting services are compliant with HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996), US legislation that provides for the safeguarding of citizens’ medical information using a framework of data privacy and security provisions.

HIPAA safeguards Protected Health Information (PHI), including any type of individually identifiable health information which is transmitted or maintained in any form or medium. An established piece of legislation in the US, HIPAA is not a requirement for UK providers unless they deliver services to US healthcare bodies. UKCloud Health now enables its partner community to offer their services to the US market by utilising one compliant cloud platform.

UKCloud Health’s customers include many National Health Service organisations and a wide spectrum of related healthcare bodies, that create, manage or process large volumes of sensitive patient data. Under HIPAA, each customer is a “Covered Entity”, while UKCloud Health acts as a “Business Associate”, providing the management of PHI on their behalf.

“As a company, we have consistently sought to achieve the highest standards of data security, ensuring our services meet the highest possible levels of accreditation,” said John Godwin, Director of Compliance and Information Assurance at UKCloud Health. “Confirming HIPAA compliance provides additional assurance to our growing healthcare customer base of our strong commitment and understanding of the challenges faced by the industry as a whole, including widespread concern among patients regarding the protection provided to their sensitive medical data.”

UKCloud Health recently revealed the results of its research* into the general public’s attitudes to data protection. The survey of more than 2,000 UK adults – which was carried out prior to the recent “WannaCry” ransomware attacks that affected a number of NHS bodies across England – identified that the majority are concerned about whether their personal data and personally identifiable data are protected by companies and public service organisations. 65 percent of respondents expressed concerns about whether their health records, including medical history and social care records, were being afforded proper levels of protection by both public services and the private companies that support them.

UKCloud Health was launched in May 2017 to deliver an open, collaborative and UK sovereign public cloud platform specifically to the healthcare industry, supporting health and care organisations, research and life sciences and pharmaceuticals. UKCloud Health is committed to supporting digital transformation across the healthcare sector. Together with its dedicated partners, UKCloud Health offers industry-leading expertise regarding the sector’s core requirements, from protecting the privacy of Patient Identifiable Data to enabling collaboration across government networks, such as N3, HSCN, Janet and PSN.

* UKCloud Health commissioned research consultancy, ComRes, to conduct a survey to gauge the opinions of more than 2,000 UK adults. ComRes interviewed 2,044 British adults aged 18+ online between 26th and 27th April 2017. Data has been weighted by age, gender, socio-economic grade and region to be representative of all GB adults aged 18+. Examining the general public’s views on data privacy across multiple domains such as government, healthcare and even social media, the survey analyses privacy concerns.