Becker's Hospital Review

58 CIO / HEALTH IT COVID-19 took center stage. As a result, the team shied priorities to those that immedi- ately supported URMC, including scaling up our ability to support work from home sce- narios, expanding our telemedicine care of- ferings to keep our providers connected with their patients, and focusing on our expenses, both operating and capital, to assist the orga- nization through this challenging time. I am extremely proud to have a great IT leader- ship team that is staying synchronized with our operational leadership, and our entire IT team is doing a phenomenal job, sometimes working seven days per week, to support our front-line clinical personnel during these rapidly unfolding events. Key advice: The game board can change so often right now as we pivot to support the next priority. Not only for us, but anyone in healthcare IT, we always want to make sure that we are supporting new work- flow arrangements, including work from home, video-conferencing, telephones, etc., and are able to turn configuration chang- es around quickly in our EMR — be it the need for new bed types, new visit types, or new locations altogether that are needed for front-line care providers. While all of this focus is taking priority, and rightly so, making sure that we remain vigilant on our security fronts. Hackers never take time off, and they always look for scenarios to ex- ploit for maximum benefit when our collective industry and national attentions are suddenly drawn elsewhere. Hackers never sleep. n 5 things to know about COVID-19 cyberattacks targeting healthcare providers By Jackie Drees T he FBI in late April released information for cy- bersecurity professionals and hospital adminis- trators to use to protect their organizations from cyber threats during the pandemic. The FBI was notified of email phishing attempts tar- geting U.S.-based medical providers. Cyber crimi- nals used email subject lines and COVID-19 related content to send out malicious attachments, which exploited Microsoft Word document files, Microsoft Visual Basic Script and Java software, among others. Here is a list of recommendations for healthcare pro- viders to avoid email phishing attempts during the pandemic, according to the FBI: 1. Closely examine email addresses that send un- solicited attachments; cyber actors can manipulate the return address to make the email appear to have been sent from a trusted associate's account. 2. Install software patches and keep software up to date so attackers can't capitalize on known vulnera- bilities or problems. 3. Do not open an email or email attachment if it seems suspicious; attackers are always releasing new viruses that antivirus software may not have the sig- nature for yet. If you do open an attachment, save and scan it before doing so. 4. Turn off the automatic download attachment op- tions on email accounts if possible. 5. Create separate user accounts for the computer and restrict reading email privileges to a single ac- count as some viruses need "administrator" privileg- es to infect a computer. n FCC awards $3M+ to NYU Langone, U Michigan & more for COVID-19 telehealth programs By Jackie Drees T he Federal Communications Commission on April 21 ap- proved its second wave of COVID-19 telehealth program applications, funneling $3.7 million to providers includ- ing NYU Langone Health and University of Michigan Hospital. Under the $200 million program, part of the $2 trillion Coro- navirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, hospitals and health centers can apply for up to $1 million to cover costs for internet-connected monitoring devices, broadband connectivi- ty and telecommunication devices. The FCC approved its first six applicants on April 16; the agen- cy is continuing to accept applications and will distribute more funding on a rolling basis. Here are healthcare providers who received financial awards in the second wave of funding: 1. NYU Langone Health (New York City) received $983,772 to implement telehealth capabilities in operating rooms and con- ference rooms that have been converted into intensive care units for clinicians to safely monitor ICU patients from separate floors. 2. University of Michigan Hospital (Ann Arbor) received $649,000 to install remote patient monitoring technology for high-risk COVID-19 patients and expand video visit capacity for patients with and without COVID-19. 3. Banyan Community Health Center (Coral Gables, Fla.) re- ceived $958,270 to serve 24 medically underserved areas in Miami-Dade and Broward counties by providing telehealth ser- vices to an estimated 2,000 low-income and high-risk patients. 4. St. John's Well Child and Family Center (Los Angeles) re- ceived $382,331 to implement remote patient monitoring, vid- eo consults and voice consults to treat 21,000 patients in south Los Angeles and Compton, Calif. 5. Health Partners of Western Ohio (Lima) received $737,098 to deploy telehealth carts and services for low-income patients at 71 community locations. n

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