Becker's Hospital Review

39 CIO / HEALTH IT Nashville explosion exposes weaknesses in IT networks: 5 takeaways for CIOs By Jackie Drees T he Dec. 25 explosion of an RV in Nashville, Tenn., which disrupted AT&T and T-Mobile services, high- lighted key risks for organizations increasingly digi- tizing their businesses, according to a Dec. 28 report in e Wall Street Journal. e bombing disrupted phone and internet service for days af- ter damaging an AT&T building on 2nd Avenue in Nashville, which affected connection points for regional internet ser- vices and local wireless, internet and video. e explosion also knocked out some of the company's backup power generators and disrupted services in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Some hospitals experienced outages as a result of the inci- dent; Gallatin, Tenn.-based Sumner Regional Medical Cen- ter had to revert to paper records when it lost access to its EHR and other operating systems. e hospital's IT systems were restored by Dec. 28. Five takeaways for CIOs: 1. IT experts told the Journal that the explosion highlights how a terrorist attack, natural disaster or cyber incident can cause widespread economic damage if it hits a location such as AT&T's switching station, which can disrupt the central system directing data from users and businesses on telecom systems. 2. Telecom networks in certain cities or regions converge at these types of central offices, and while AT&T said Dec. 28 that it restored most service in Nashville, the incident shows how an issue at one of these physical locations can have a ripple effect across an entire region's digital infrastructure. 3. e incident "creates an opportunity for all of us to re- view our backup and resiliency planning not only for our technology and non-office facilities, but also to identify and assess the physical and technological resilience of our crit- ical partners," Edward Wagoner, CIO of commercial real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle, said in an email to the publication. 4. Businesses must build redundancies into their networks that allow one service to take over if another goes down, and using multiple tech vendors at various levels will minimize risk, according to Vineet Jain, CEO of online file-sharing service Egnyte. 5. While networks should become more secure as soware replaces physical infrastructure, the shi to "soware-de- fined networking" is only about one-third complete, accord- ing to Forrester Research digital strategy analyst Dan Bieler. ese systems may be more resilient to disruptions, but the time frame is difficult to predict because deployment varies across carriers. n How this New Jersey health system is training physicians to give bad news over telehealth By Jackie Drees E nglewood (N.J.) Health became the first health system to participate in a virtual training program for clinicians using professional actors to simulate real patient encounters in which they have to deliver negative news over video chat. "Medical school doesn't prepare you to tell someone over tele- health that their loved one is dying," said Anthony Orsini, MD, practicing neonatologist at Orlando, Fla.-based Winnie Palmer Hospital and founder and president of the training program the Orsini Way, according to a Dec. 9 news release. The training is done over videoconferencing, where professional improvisational actors play patients to mimic real-life scenarios for physicians and nurses. After participating in the role-playing exercises, the clinicians then review their recorded sessions and receive coaching from instructors. "The pandemic changed so much for so many. We had to quickly pivot to telehealth consultations at a time where our team was beyond overwhelmed," said Tanganyika Barnes, DO, director of Englewood Health's internal medicine resi- dency program, adding that the health system's residents now have more confidence and communication skills to lead con- versations with patients and their families both virtually and in person. n Johns Hopkins develops COVID-19 vaccine data dashboard: 3 details By Laura Dyrda B altimore-based Johns Hopkins University in December created a COVID-19 vaccine data dashboard to track the administration of various vaccines across the U.S. by state. Three details: 1. The dashboard shows data for states publicly reporting infor- mation on the COVID-19 vaccine; some states haven't disclosed the number of vaccines administered, according to a Business Insider report. 2. The state-level vaccine tracker relies on information from the Centers for Civic Impact and pairs the information with COVID-19 case data and positivity rate. 3. The Johns Hopkins vaccine distribution tool includes news ar- ticles and resources about the vaccine development and princi- ples for allocation. Larry Corey, MD, of the University of Washing- ton in Seattle and Chris Beyrer, MD, of Johns Hopkins University also co-led a blog series discussing vaccine development. n

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