Legislation and security will drive technology
Similar to Gramm-Leach, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients and their medical records. Much as Gramm-Leach has made financial institutions assess the security of their customer data, HIPAA forces health-care organizations to evaluate the security of their patient data.
Compliance with both Gramm-Leach and HIPAA will necessitate the use of strong cryptography and tight security whenever customer or patient data is being stored or transmitted over a network.