Among the three categories of MIT, the switching of records or insertion of false entries is the most hazardous. The possibility of your records being switched and thereby receiving medication or procedures that are totally unrelated to your ailment is a possibility that we should understand.

Hospitals should implement stringent security procedures in their Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. This is unfortunately not the case in most health institutions. You would be astonished how many people have access to your medical records.

Another common form of MIT involves impersonation. One case involved a patient who impersonated a cousin and gained hospital admittance. He ran up bills running into hundreds of thousands of shillings. This forced hospital administrators to require current picture before admission. In other instances the thief can be your own doctor. There are doctors who defraud patients by billing their health insurance providers for fictitious consultations or treatment.

MIT is a form of cyber crime that has hidden itself very well in Kenya. Victims are often defenseless and at the mercy of bureaucratic red tape from health insurance providers and the pathetic Freedom of Information and Disclosure legislation in Kenya.

Next week I shall describe various ways you can protect your medical records.