Security News > 2022 > November > Rallying cybersecurity and healthcare IT to support patient safety

As we look to expedite applying cybersecurity to protect the field of medicine and its evolving cyber-physical nature, patient safety should be our guiding star.

Healthcare organizations already understand the priority; patient safety and the Hippocratic Oath guide the work of medical professionals.

To be fair, medical professionals are usually granted ample resources to win the battle against patient disease, while hospitals' IT teams are often lacking people, processes, and the technology support they need to foil ransomware, device hacking and other cybersecurity threats.

My perspective is that we can set up and treat cybersecurity in healthcare the same way patient safety is addressed - disciplined process, timeliness, and oversight with expert human judgment.

For the cybersecurity professional, a disciplined process typically includes defining timelines in the security program to regularly perform expert checks, especially on assets or workflows impacting patient safety.

Pre-work in cybersecurity includes knowing who to call and how quickly a call must be returned to protect patient safety.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/11/16/cyber-physical-systems-healthcare/