HIPAA Compliance for Engineers: 5 Pillars

"HIPAA-Compliant AI" is a term everyone uses, but what does it mean for an engineer? It's not a single product; it's an architecture built on several important pillars: 1. The BAA: This is the legal foundation. You must have a Business Associate Agreement with all vendors (including cloud providers) that touch PHI. 2. Encryption: This is table stakes. Data must be encrypted at-rest (in the database) and in-transit (over the network) using strong protocols. 3. Access Control (RBAC): Implementing the "principle of least privilege." Only authorized individuals can access only the PHI they need for their job. 4. Audit Logs: You must have an immutable, time-stamped log of who accessed what data, and when. 5. De-identification: This is the most critical piece. You can't just train public LLMs on raw PHI. Data must be de-identified using either the "Safe Harbor" method (removing all 18 identifiers) or "Expert Determination". It's not just a checkbox. It's a non-negotiable set of security-first design principles. #HIPAA #HealthTech #AI #Compliance #DataSecurity #CloudComputing