Healthcare Technology
& Innovation
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GROWTH OPPORTUNITY 1:
Addressing the Cybersecurity Challenges
While the healthcare industry is known for its strict compliance policies and regulations to ensure data security and privacy, growing instances of cybersecurity threats are creating new concerns and dilemmas for implementing emerging digital workflows. Today, health systems, payers, and drug and device manufacturers need a secure and trusted connected health IT ecosystem to manage healthcare data and promote value-based care. According to the 2017 IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute study, the cost of data breaches for healthcare organizations has increased, averaging $380 per record, while for other industries it has dropped by 10%. Consequently, cybersecurity threats are becoming a grim concern for medical device and technology companies. For example, last year, Johnson & Johnson warned patients that their “OneTouch Ping” insulin pump was vulnerable to hacking. Most recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also reported findings of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in St. Jude Medical heart devices. With a growing number of connected health devices, the potential for hacking any medical device, whether or not it is connected to a network, is a problem that deserves serious attention by medical device original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).