API Security in Telemedicine: Protecting Sensitive Patient Data

Telehealth is breaking down many of the traditional barriers to care that require patients to drive long distances to clinics to receive treatment, which may be nothing more than a brief chat with doctors. For those with disabilities or residing in underserved or more remote areas, a simple checkup like this is a significant undertaking, driving many of them to delay care.

Telehealth helped flip the script on this, making it easier for patients to access providers from their homes. It does everything from allowing patients to book appointments to accessing their own medical records and even receiving virtual consultations, which significantly improves the accessibility to services for many.

Telehealth relies on a number of technologies to provide the infrastructure necessary to securely connect doctors and patients. One of these core technologies is APIs that facilitate seamless, secure data exchange across healthcare systems, connecting healthcare providers, patients, and third-party platforms. This connectivity is essential for integrating electronic health records (EHRs), scheduling, and billing systems, centralizing critical patient information, and reducing the risk of manual data entry errors. APIs enable healthcare providers to operate more efficiently, ensuring patient information flows smoothly across systems for coordinated care.

The interconnectivity of APIs goes beyond traditional systems and integrates teleconferencing tools, allowing patients and providers to have face-to-face conversations regardless of location. Many of these APIs give providers in-depth visibility into their patient’s health by integrating with wearable devices and health apps, allowing providers to monitor patients’ vital signs. This capability is invaluable for managing chronic conditions, post-operative care, and preventive health, saving patients costly lengthy hospital visits for monitoring.

However, despite all of the benefits that come from APIs in telehealth, there are also significant security risks associated with their usage, especially for patient data. APIs connect to various systems, such as electronic health records, remote monitoring devices, and telehealth apps, creating numerous entry points where sensitive data, including medical histories and personal identifiers, could be exposed if they are not properly protected or if a vulnerability is discovered. This risk increases based on the number of integrations and third-party connections that deliver the extra functionality to telemedicine implementations.

Telemedicine APIs are at the heart of patient data exchange, handling highly sensitive information such as medical histories, personal identifiers, and real-time health metrics. This data’s value makes it an attractive target for attackers, who see it as a gateway to financial gain and identity exploitation. The challenge for telemedicine providers is that even a minor security lapse can lead to significant privacy violations, eroding patient trust and causing lasting reputational damage.

The interconnected nature of telemedicine platforms has expanded the attack surface, mainly due to the increasing reliance on third-party integrations. These integrations, essential for functions like billing, scheduling, and remote diagnostics, each bring their own set of security challenges. Every third-party connection opens up new potential entry points that require vigilant oversight to ensure they meet the same stringent security standards as the core telemedicine platform. Yet, securing these integrations is complex, as they often come with differing security protocols and varying levels of compliance with healthcare regulations. Without a consistent approach to managing these connections, telemedicine providers risk exposing sensitive patient data to vulnerabilities introduced by external partners.

Compounding this issue are shadow APIs, which are unmonitored or undocumented APIs that remain outside of regular security practices. These shadow APIs can emerge from rapid development cycles, testing environments, or overlooked endpoints created for specific functionalities, leading to significant blind spots. When APIs are undocumented, they are not consistently monitored or secured, creating an inviting target for attackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities that might go unnoticed by security teams. In telemedicine, where every endpoint could potentially expose sensitive health data, untracked APIs represent a serious risk.

Protecting sensitive data in telemedicine starts by focusing on the APIs facilitating its operations. Much of this is done by improving visibility into the areas where they are most at risk from known vulnerabilities and external threats. With tooling that increases this visibility and allows organizations to rapidly address these problems, the risk is greatly diminished, helping to protect sensitive patient data, which is a core part of meeting compliance mandates.

API security relies on timely vulnerability detection and proactive remediation, especially in data-sensitive fields like telemedicine. Automated vulnerability scanning is the backbone of this approach, continuously monitoring APIs for security gaps that could expose sensitive patient information. By identifying vulnerabilities early, this scanning process allows organizations to address risks before they can be exploited. Automated scans dive deep into the API structure to detect issues ranging from misconfigurations to complex code weaknesses, ensuring a comprehensive assessment that leaves little room for oversight.

Detailed reporting and guidance are essential to streamline the remediation process. After scanning, each identified vulnerability is documented in a clear, structured report that includes step-by-step instructions for developers. These actionable insights outline the nature and impact of each issue and provide specific guidance to resolve it, empowering development teams to respond quickly and efficiently.

Continuous monitoring and comprehensive threat management operationally build on vulnerability detection to secure telemedicine environments. Regular, scheduled scans ensure that APIs are consistently checked for emerging threats, allowing security teams to respond proactively rather than reactively. This continuous monitoring approach is especially valuable in telemedicine, where platforms must evolve rapidly to meet patient needs, potentially introducing new vulnerabilities with each update.

In addition to regular scans, a robust asset discovery process ensures that all public-facing APIs, including shadow APIs, are identified and assessed. This process creates a complete, accurate inventory of API endpoints, significantly reducing the risk of unmonitored entry points that attackers could exploit.

To help meet regulatory requirements, automated compliance checks can constantly evaluate these detected APIs against common standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. These checks create an auditable trail of compliance, showing the organization's commitment to protecting patient data while at the same time easing the administrative burden of audits by having accessible documentation ready to go.

Probely, now a part of Snyk, offers healthcare organizations a robust solution for securing telemedicine APIs, helping protect sensitive patient data with a proactive, seamless approach. With Probely’s continuous vulnerability scanning, healthcare providers can identify and address security gaps before they become threats, keeping patient information safe while supporting the agility of telemedicine demands. By consistently monitoring APIs and offering detailed, actionable insights for remediation, Probely enables development teams to respond swiftly and confidently, ensuring that evolving platforms remain secure.

Probely’s comprehensive asset discovery provides a full view of all API endpoints, including shadow APIs, so that no entry point is left unchecked. Automated compliance checks further simplify regulatory alignment, making meeting compliance requirements easier while reducing administrative burdens. With Probely, healthcare organizations can focus on delivering secure, compliant, and resilient telemedicine services that patients can trust.

Schedule a demo today to see how Probely can help your organization uncover its true software security posture.