The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) has released a new report recommending the health sector look to partner with more traditional information security groups, with the intent of better securing medical devices. Titled “The Medical Device and Health IT Joint Security Plan (JSP),” the report is an output of recommendations from the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Force. Notes the report, “Software-based medical technologies have the potential to positively impact patient care. However, as these products become more connected, product cybersecurity becomes increasingly important as there is the potential for patient harm and disruption of care if products or clinical operations become impacted because of a cybersecurity concern.”
While connected medical devices have continued to become more common, they currently lag behind more conventional IT programs in security and data protection, and great efforts are needed to bring them in line with other sectors. Says Matthew Broomhall, CTO of technology support services at IBM, “Software-based medical technologies have the potential to positively impact patient care. However, as these products become more connected, product cybersecurity becomes increasingly important as there is the potential for patient harm and disruption of care if products or clinical operations become impacted because of a cybersecurity concern.”
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