healthcare

Even when a disaster or critical incident occurs, hospitals and healthcare organizations must be able to continue to provide assistance to existing patients, while also preparing for a surge of new ones. With many hospitals operating at nearly full capacity, even during periods of relative calm, business downtime of any duration will significantly impact both profitability and patient health outcomes; ensuring business continuity during any situation is critical, particularly in a times of limited resources.

While readiness for crises and critical incidents is essential for conducting resilient business operations in any industry, for healthcare providers, the stakes are higher. Threats like communicable disease outbreaks, weather disasters, and cyberattacks not only disrupt business-as-usual -- they also put individual lives and community well-being in jeopardy.

An overwhelming 99 percent of healthcare professionals want to be free to focus on patient care, but an abundance of technology is taking time and energy away from their core tasks.

This startling statistic is from a new study by Zivver which interviewed over 6,000 employees across the US and Europe, more than 400 of them in healthcare organizations, about their digital communications and workplace productivity.

The healthcare sector not only faces a greater number of threats from cyber-attacks compared to other industries but it could also be one of the most vulnerable industries to cyber attacks. These cybersecurity vulnerabilities were most highlighted by the recent attack on the UK's NHS this August, which resulted in widespread outages across the NHS.

Today, the healthcare industry continues to increasingly digitalise to ensure its resilience while improving the quality of care. This transformation has most recently, and rapidly, been driven by the Covid-19 pandemic which called on the industry to add new dimensions to the way that care is delivered to patients as well as increase the efficiency of overwhelmed healthcare systems. This resulted in the addition of new and innovative processes and applications such as telemedicine and the adoption of AI capabilities such as chatbots and real-time data analytics like medical imaging. However, with new technological additions, also new vulnerabilities and cyber risks are introduced into the healthcare systems.

Today the healthcare industry faces significant challenges with long patient backlogs, a shortage of staff and resources, all of which has been exacerbated in recent years by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there are literally millions of people in the queue awaiting treatment and many more that simply haven’t come forward for care or referrals, as patients put off engaging with healthcare systems.

Those with minor problems and early-stage symptoms subsequently develop more serious conditions, which are harder to treat and in turn increase the cost of healthcare provision.

While large healthcare providers have lots of juicy data to tempt cybercriminals, they are also likely to have strong defenses.

It's not too surprising then that a new report from managed detection and response provider Critical Insight shows that in the first half of this year attackers have shifted their attentions to smaller hospital systems and specialty clinics that lack the same level of security preparedness, staff size, or budget.

According to a new survey, 94 percent of chief data officers (CDOs) from healthcare organizations and financial services firms say that deploying data privacy technology that enforces existing privacy regulations would result in increased revenues for their organizations.

The study from privacy technology specialist TripleBlind finds 37 percent of respondents estimate improved collaboration would increase revenues as much as 20 percent. In addition, 46 percent say increased data collaboration would give their organization a competitive advantage over others.

There has been a 90 percent increase in the number of healthcare organizations targeted by cyber-attacks, in comparison with the first quarter of 2022.

The latest cyber threat Landscape report from Kroll finds that while phishing continues to be the vector used for initial access, there has been a vast increase in external remote services (such as VPNs and RDP environments) being compromised, up 700 percent.

In June 2021, the UK government announced a plan to transform how data is used across the health and care sectors. The goal is to give patients control of their health data and enable staff to save more lives through improved care and treatment.

One aspect of this strategy is the development of Smart Hospitals, which will use digital interoperability to redesign traditional hospital processes, systems, and infrastructures. The NHS is currently being urged to invest in Smart Hospitals -- both when building new hospitals, and when upgrading existing facilities with smart infrastructure.

Telehealth has taken the medical world by storm. Hospitals rapidly adopted these remote technologies out of necessity amid COVID-19, but it quickly became apparent that their potential goes even further.

Telehealth accounted for less than 1 percent of total health care volume before COVID, but it quickly became the norm. However, it won’t be the future of medicine. More than 70 percent of physicians are motivated to increase their telehealth use, and new technologies are emerging, so this practice is evolving. Here’s a look at how metaverse technologies are transforming the future of telemedicine.

When you experience a persistent cold or a petulant pain in your arm, there is no hiding that paying your doctor a visit is not always your first port of call. Sometimes, when struck by a headache or an unexpected rash, the first reaction is to switch on your laptop and fire your pressing questions at Dr. Google. "Why do I have pins and needles in my leg?" "What is causing this mild chest pain?" "Is this mole dangerous?"

Some searchers are simply looking for basic information and take their findings with a pinch of salt. Others, instead, will spend hours skipping from one website to the next, worried about the array of intimidating diagnoses they have found. When this occurs, it is often known as cyberchondria.

Web scraping can be a force for good in the world. While it has been predominantly used by large corporations, more opportunities for non-profit use of web scraping have been becoming apparent.

Most of these non-profit projects focused on things such as catching corruption. However, it can be beneficial anywhere where data is public. Luckily, the global trend seems to be moving us towards the democratization of data where it becomes available to everyone.

With an almost limitless amount of information available to us 24/7, it has become a common practice to turn to Google for answers to ailments. However, while in theory learning more about potential symptoms may help ease a person’s mind, the risk of self-diagnosing looms large. A Statista survey found that 68 percent  of British adults diagnose themselves through the web at least every few months -- if not more regularly.

The issue with self-diagnosis is that it may deter people from visiting a doctor. Without medical expertise, self-diagnosis can often become misdiagnosis. Here we take a look at the key issues with self-diagnosing using the web.

Condoms are a great way to minimize the risk of both pregnancy and some sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, condoms have proven to be a solid defense against the spread of HIV -- the virus that leads to AIDS.

The question, however, is does the world need a condom emoji? According to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the answer is yes. You see, today, the AHF has chosen to launch a campaign to try and convince the The Unicode Consortium to add a proper condom emoji -- not just using the balloon ? emoji in conjunction with an eggplant ? or banana ?. Why launch the campaign today, though? Because February 13 is International Condom Day!

Getting software right is no easy task -- especially in healthcare. It must be applicable to a near-endless list of users, applications, and contexts -- and these are constantly evolving. These inevitabilities, paired with the inherent difficulties of managing such a huge organization, unfortunately means that software is often not as effective as it can be -- and costs the UK's National Health Service (NHS) far more than it needs to.

The reasons for this are, of course, many, but the fix is remarkably simple; NHS Trusts must stop looking at the micro and the short-term, and instead think about how to procure software that is both flexible and delivers long-term value. Easier said than done, I know, but it is not impossible. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing software.

Technology has had an impact on most areas of our lives. In the healthcare sector the pandemic has seen a rise in the use of remote consultations and more.

In the next year experts expect this to continue along with trends towards AI, wearables and more.