Becker's Hospital Review

83 CIO / HEALTH IT 5 overlooked trends CIOs should address By Katie Adams H ospital CIOs must stay on top of trends to maintain successful digital strategies, as technology and the culture around it are constantly evolving. Becker's talked with five healthcare CIOs to highlight trends they think other CIOs are overlooking: 1. Addressing technical debt: Hospitals can be tempted to delay the removal of aging tech- nology, as the immediate return on investment is not clear. But it is important for hospitals to assess the risks of relying on technology that is no longer supported, as well as the negative effect technical debt can have on the potential success of modernization efforts, B.J. Moore, CIO of Renton, Wash.-based Providence, told Becker's. "It is like building a sprawling mod- ern structure over obsolete, faulty foundation and fittings," he said. 2. 5G deployment: 5G has potential to ben- efit healthcare in ways 4G could not, Michael Pfeffer, MD, CIO at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care, told Becker's, saying 5G will allow for faster speeds and more con- nected devices while reducing interference between devices. He also said 5G's ability for thousands of devices to quickly and secure- ly send data throughout an organization can improve the supply chain, advance mobile medical imaging and reduce capacity issues on existing Wi-Fi networks. Even though healthcare is still three to five years away from realizing 5G's true benefits, Dr. Pfeffer said it's important that hospitals start planning the necessary upgrades now, especially if they are in the midst of con- structing new facilities. 3. EHR-based mobility and voice solutions: Many hospitals are failing to take advantage of the mobility and voice solutions built into the EHR, Roy Sookhoo, CIO at University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albu- querque, told Becker's. He proposed a litmus test for hospitals: "If the technology is not ubiquitous with clinician-patient interaction and our physicians are still documenting af- ter their shi is over, then hospitals are over- looking the real value of the mobile and voice solutions already built within their EHRs." 4. Cloud-first approach: Enabling a cloud- first strategy is key once an organization de- cides to move to the cloud, according to Mr. Moore. "Cloud is where innovation and scale are occurring, so any investment on solutions that are natively for on-premises represent a step in the wrong direction," he said. 5. Gaps in cybersecurity strategies: Many hospitals are not putting enough effort into staff training regarding phishing, Randy Da- vis, CIO at Sterling, Ill.-based CGH Medical Center, told Becker's. Many think of cyberse- curity as hardware-focused, but that's recov- ery rather than prevention, he said. "Nearly 50 percent of attacks come in through social engineering, and yet our focus is still on the hardware to stop it," Mr. Davis said. "If you're going to stop malware, you have to stop social engineering attacks. at means a commitment to internally generated cam- paigns to try to get people to fail. If they fail, educate them with more than a 'please don't click on that (or open that) again.'" Many hospitals also overlook the gap in over- all security programs within their facilities, according to Carl Smith, CIO at Brookhaven, Miss.-based King's Daughters Medical Center. He said although many hospitals rely on an annual audit to satisfy HIPAA requirements, cyberthreats have evolved to a point where most traditional methods won't hold up. "Solutions such as extended detection and re- sponse and managed detection and response have become a necessity in today's world," Mr. Smith said. "Health systems today need expertise more than simply relying on their own limited security staff." n Ascension Michigan data breach exposed 27K patient records By Katie Adams A scension Michigan notified patients in March of a data breach that exposed 27,177 patients' data. On Nov. 30, 2021, Ascension Michigan discovered an unauthorized user had accessed its EHR between Oct. 15, 2021 and Sept. 8, 2021. The unauthorized user may have accessed patient information including full names, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, health insurance identification numbers, dates of service, diagnoses and Social Security numbers. In response to the incident, Ascension Michigan conducted a review of inter- nal controls to better safeguard patient information. The system is also offer- ing free credit and identity theft protection monitoring services to patients affected by the breach. n HHS taps new CIO as AI chief departs By Naomi Diaz T he Department of Health and Human Services' first chief artificial intel- ligence officer departed the agency, and a new CIO was appointed, FedScoop reported March 2. Oki Mek, HHS' former chief artificial intelligence officer, who oversaw the launch of the department's AI website, departed the agency Feb. 26. He spent one year in the role and 11 years overall at HHS. His departure came shortly after HHS appointed Karl Mathias as CIO. Mr. Mathias, who is the eighth CIO for the department in the last seven years, assumed the role of CIO March 14. n

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