Building healthcare applications requires careful navigation of HIPAA compliance requirements. Learn the key considerations for developing secure, compliant health technology products.
What HIPAA requires
At its core, HIPAA requires you to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of protected health information (PHI) — through administrative, physical, and technical safeguards.
Design choices that matter
- Encrypt PHI in transit and at rest.
- Enforce least-privilege access and strong authentication.
- Keep audit logs of who accessed what, and when.
- Sign Business Associate Agreements with every vendor that touches PHI.
A practical checklist
Compliance is not a one-time gate; it is an ongoing discipline. Bake it into design reviews, vendor selection, and release processes rather than bolting it on at the end.