Amidst the pandemic overwhelming the capacity of many hospital systems, malicious hackers have been quick to target healthcare providers and medical agencies. These cyber-attacks have hit both the United States and Europe in recent months, serving as a reminder for organizations to closely review their information security posture during these times of uncertainty.
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) products refer to a combination of medical applications and devices connected to healthcare information technology systems through an online computer network or a wireless network. IoMT devices rely heavily on biosensors, critical in detecting an individual's tissue, respiratory, and blood characteristics. Non-bio sensors are also used to measure other patient characteristics such as heart and muscle electrical activity, motion, and body temperature.
After a year of lockdown, or nearly full lockdown, due to the ongoing health crisis, we learned a lot from how our organizations responded when we all had to change our work habits to a home-office setup.
Getting incentives for the best security practices is a win-win for all healthcare-related entities. For one, you are getting incentives, and secondly, you are making sure that you have a rock-solid defense in terms of security. Many organizations find that the rules and regulations that HIPAA entails are too extensive and overwhelming, however. What’s more, cybersecurity wasn’t a thing when HIPAA was introduced.
As the pharmaceutical industry seeks to improve health outcomes globally, a critical area of investment is increasing participant diversity. We know that gender, age, and race have profound effects on the way pharmaceuticals are metabolized. That is why the FDA has been encouraging diversity in clinical trials for years, although without mandate nor incentive. The burden has largely fallen on industry groups to work out the how.
The healthcare sector is undergoing digitalization and adopts new technologies to improve patient care, offer new services for remote patients and reach operational excellence. The integration of new technologies in the complex healthcare IT infrastructure creates new challenges regarding data protection and cybersecurity.
SimpleHealth takes their company name to heart. They are a reproductive tele-health company, focused on building thoughtful and impactful services that enable patients to own their reproductive health journey. Today, the core vertical is an online birth control prescription and free home delivery service.
One of the most crucial things for the healthcare sector during the ongoing global pandemic, amidst many other competing priorities, is keeping a check on its cybersecurity measures. During the first half of 2020, HHS or the Department of Health and Human Services recorded a 50% increase in cybersecurity breaches in the field of healthcare itself.
