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Digital healthcare has become the backbone of modern clinical practice – from instant access to patient histories to seamless referrals across care pathways. But as healthcare rapidly shifts to electronic systems, the need to protect patient information has never been more urgent. Data privacy in EHR systems is now a foundational requirement, not a technical detail. With cyberattacks on hospitals increasing year after year, healthcare organisations must ensure their digital platforms are secure, compliant, and trusted by both clinicians and patients.
Healthcare faced an unprecedented surge in cyber risks in 2024, recording 444 major cyber incidents, including 238 ransomware attacks and 206 data breaches. More than 276 million PHI records were exposed that year averaging 758,288 compromised records a day and early 2025 reviews revealed that over 90% of hacked health records came from systems outside the EHR, with none of the stolen data encrypted. Within EHR/EMR systems, 128 breaches affected 4.9 million records, while non-EMR systems were responsible for nearly 1.5 billion compromised records. Hacking remained the biggest threat, with 363 incidents exposing 131 million records, and surveys showed 25.5% of healthcare staff admitted accessing colleagues’ EMRs out of curiosity. Overall, healthcare saw 556 breaches in 2024, at least 14 million U.S. patients affected by mid-year, and 1,542 confirmed data disclosures in Verizon’s 2025 DBIR, with 387 breaches exceeding 500 records. These numbers clearly demonstrate how critical strong data privacy measures in EHR systems have become.
The statistics indicate that when a healthcare organisation suffers a breach of its cybersecurity infrastructure, it jeopardises the entire system; and a data privacy breach places the patient at risk. Cybersecurity and data privacy are interlinked and go hand in hand when building a modern EHR framework. This is why strong, well-designed EHR privacy frameworks matter now more than ever.
Data Privacy in EHR | Cybersecurity in EHR |
Governs how patient information is collected, stored, accessed, shared, and protected | Protects the EHR systems, networks, devices, and integrations from cyberattacks and unauthorised access |
Ensures confidentiality, integrity, and availability of patient data | Ensures system integrity, operational continuity, and protection from external threats |
Focuses on who can access and use patient information | Focuses on how systems and infrastructure are secured |
Driven by regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, NHS DSP Toolkit | Driven by cybersecurity standards like ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, OWASP guidelines |
Failure leads to unauthorised use of patient data, legal issues, and loss of trust | Failure leads to system downtime, EMR/ EHR data breaches, ransomware attacks, and operational disruption |
Healthcare organisations must prioritise both data privacy and cybersecurity to safeguard patient information and maintain trust. While regulations and standards provide guidance, it is the implementation of consistent practices, secure systems, and vigilant staff behaviour that ensures EHRs remain protected against evolving threats. A modern EHR should seamlessly combine compliance, security, and usability, allowing clinicians to deliver care efficiently without compromising patient safety.
Even with cutting-edge facilities, the ongoing obstacles continue to exist:
Cybercrime/External Attacks via Ransomware
Cybercriminals take advantage of older software and unpatched systems to gain unauthorised access to facilities. From there, they are able to lock out entire hospitals.
Insider Errors or Misuse
Human error such as weak passwords or unauthorised access, is one of the biggest threats to Data Privacy in EHR systems.
Integration into Multiple Systems
When multiple systems integrate in order to exchange data, there can be major security concerns if those integrations are not adequately secured.
Mobile Access and Remote Workflow Advancement
As health care becomes increasingly mobile, protecting access to EHRs from beyond the clinical environment is crucial.
Addressing these challenges requires EHR platforms built with security-first engineering.
To protect against modern threats, an EHR should include:
These features form the backbone of trustworthy Data Privacy in EHR environments.
Cellma ensures that it incorporates all aspects of cybersecurity and data privacy within the entire EHR ecosystem. When a design is made using a security-by-design principle and is integrated throughout all processes that create EHRs, patient information will continue to provide data privacy. Here’s how Cellma stands out:
Encrypted Data Exchange
Every interaction, from clinical notes to referral uploads is encrypted, ensuring secure data flow within and outside the organisation.
Enhanced Role-Based Access Control System
Cellma allows administrators to customise permissions, ensuring clinicians access only what they need.
Complete Logs of Usage
Logs are maintained for each individual user, providing organisations with 100% visibility of each authorisation and therefore creating the basis for the user’s accountability.
Secure Connections Between Systems
Cellma’s ability to connect seamlessly with other systems is provided through the use of secure API’s that protect data privacy in EHR workflows.
ISO 27001–Aligned Cloud Hosting
Cellma’s infrastructure adheres to international standards for information security, offering an additional layer of protection.
Privacy-Focused Portals
Both CellmaFlex (patient portal) and Cellma Connect (referral portal) are designed with privacy-first architecture, ensuring safe communication and data sharing.
Continuous Monitoring & Vulnerability Testing
As new threats continue to arise, Cellma continuously monitors and tests to ensure that the system is updated and secured against these new threats.
Cellma doesn’t just manage healthcare data, it safeguards it.
Key Data Security & Compliance Standards and How Cellma Aligns with Them
Ensuring strong cybersecurity and data privacy in EHR systems requires adherence to globally recognised data protection and cybersecurity standards.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
Cellma complies with GDPR by using secure end-to-end data flows, role-based access controls, built-in consent capture capabilities, as well as full documentation for tracking and auditing of all consent captured.
NHS Data Security and Protection (DSP) Toolkit
The NHS DSP Toolkit defines the basic level of compliance required for all NHS patient data. Cellma provides NHS compliance through encrypted data sharing, strict access controls and ready-to-govern workflows.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials is designed to protect against cyberattacks. Cellma reflects these practices with secure configurations, malware protection, and controlled system access.
OWASP Application Security Guidelines
OWASP is the industry standard for software development best practices. Cellma uses secure software coding practices, conducts regular penetration testing and practices vulnerability management.
HL7 & FHIR Interoperability Standards
HL7 and FHIR are standards for secure and structured sharing of electronic health data across different healthcare systems. Cellma supports both standards through encrypted data interoperability and tokenisation for the secure sharing of data while allowing seamless integration with other systems.
Data Privacy Best Practices | Cybersecurity Best Practices |
Provide regular staff privacy training | Provide regular staff cybersecurity training |
Enforce strong authentication for data access | Implement multi-factor authentication and strong password policies |
Conduct periodic privacy audits | Perform frequent vulnerability assessments and penetration testing |
Keep systems updated for compliance | Keep software, servers, and devices up to date with security patches |
Use EHRs like Cellma that support legal compliance | Use EHRs like Cellma with cybersecurity-by-design features |
Future Trends for Cybersecurity & Data Privacy in Electronic Health Records
As the rapid evolution of cyber security within healthcare continues, there are several key future trends that will impact this industry:
Cellma fits all of these evolving areas by providing a flexible and adaptable platform to ensure healthcare providers can continue to deliver digital care and protect their organisations.
As healthcare becomes increasingly digitised, data privacy in EHR systems must remain at the forefront of organisational priorities. Patients trust healthcare providers with their most sensitive information, and safeguarding this data is part of delivering quality care.
Cellma provides a secure, compliant, and future-ready digital environment where clinicians can work confidently, and patients can feel protected.
Book a free demo today and experience an EHR designed for the future of secure, connected healthcare.
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Cellma's design employs various measures to ensure patient data security by using role-based access control, audit trail tracking, and layered authentication. These controls restrict access, editing, and the ability to view patient records to only those personnel granted access rights to their respective roles. In addition, a separated secured environment with continuous surveillance can help to reduce the risk of exposure to the various forms of cyber-attacks perpetrated on the healthcare industry.
Yes, Cellma employs encryption as a means to ensure that both the data that is stored (known as Data at Rest) and the data that is transmitted (known as Data in Transit) cannot be accessed through any means unless a user is granted permission by an administrator. Therefore, even if a data breach were to occur, all sensitive information regarding patients would be kept secure throughout its entire lifecycle
Cellma provides means to log user activity, provide the ability to set configurable user permissions, and have alerts for unusual activity regarding access to patient information. These tools allow healthcare organisations to detect, monitor and take action, if applicable, for instances of unauthorised access to patient information which will help maintain patient trust as well as comply with patient privacy laws.
