As EHR Adoption Increases, so does Fears of Medical Identify Theft

There is more talk of medical identity theft and its direct correlation to increases in EHR adoption. While this is an exremely important and necessary topic to discuss, I have found that all parties involved, from vendor to physician, understand this threat and the need to protect medical data. According to the article Medical Identity Theft Concerns Grow as EHR Adoption Increases, "A 2007 federal report on crime -- the most recent year for which data are available -- found that more than 250,000 U.S. residents annually are victims of medical identity theft, the New York Times reports." The article goes on to explain that due to the increase in EHR adoption, the number of medical identity theft cases are also increasing.
I've seen countless analogies comparing the banking industry 15 years ago (when they first started converting to a computerized system) and the healthcare industry today, and here is another one. If the banking industry can figure out how to keep our financial information secure and, for the most part, safe from identity theft while creating and maintaining all financial data electronically, then the healthcare industry can do the same.