I feel like it’s happening more and more: sitting in the doctor’s office and the nurse, just about to run a test or take a reading, taps on the instrument or computer, sighs and says, “This darn thing isn’t working again.” Like any industry, the more automated medicine becomes, the more opportunity there is for things to break down. In a hospital setting, that means IT has expanded to include computer systems, mobile devices, medical testing equipment, implantable medical devices and more.
Security has long been a top priority for all medical computer systems thanks to HIPPA laws, but as new equipment comes on board security has come to stand for safety too. At hacker conference Black Hat, one demonstrator started the crowd by remotely reconfiguring a Wi-Fi-connected insulin pump. Soon after, TV series “Homeland” raised more concerns by killing off one of its characters via a hacked pacemaker.
But for hospital IT departments, security is only one concern. Interoperability problems are rampant as more modern medical equipment is connected to legacy networking systems. EKG and X-Ray systems that rely on static IP addressing have been a major issue, as well as equipment that doesn’t support the advanced encryption standards required by the medical network. Further complicating matters is the range of equipment used in a multi-department environment, where surgeons might rely on the latest diagnostic equipment while Orthopedics is still muddling along with equipment several years old that requires completely different authentication standards.
The FDA has released best practice recommendations for wireless security and system maintenance but frankly, most of the advice is common sense. Still, it provides any medical center IT staff with a checklist to bring to the people who control the purse strings and can be helpful is setting up standards that the entire operation can be held to. One thing that the FDA and all medical system consultants seem to agree on is that a standard certification and onboarding process is critical to laying a foundation on what equipment can be used in medical care. Departments don’t operate autonomously anymore but must work with the available network structure in making decisions and upgrades.
At HIMSS14 this month, Cloudpath introduced its new XpressConnect Enrollment System 3.0 designed to work with medical environments in bringing consistency, scalability and sustainability to Wi-Fi networks. One of its most appealing features might be self-service and automatic onboarding functionality, freeing up technical staff to deal with more complex issues or keep up with routing maintenance.
Cloudpath CEO Kevin Koster noted, “XpressConnect ES removes the traditional conflict between ease-of-use and security. It allows a wide array of healthcare Wi-Fi use cases, including physician roaming, patient/visitor access, along with BYOD and IT access, to be more usable, manageable and secure than previously possible."
While the growth pains in medical technology will continue, systems like this new offering from Cloudpath may at least help free up IT staff to focus their attentions on larger, systems design issues – and keep hackers grubby hands off our pacemakers!
Edited by
Alisen Downey
