Stay ahead of the headlines

Mar 4, 2024·The White House

PCAST releases a report on strengthening U.S. cyber-physical systems essential for daily life (e.g., electrical grid, internet) under President Biden's directives for a secure, resilient national infrastructure. Recommendations include setting resilience goals, enhancing R&D, improving coordination, and ensuring executive accountability for cybersecurity.

Mar 1, 2024·Medical Futurist

'Virtual first' in healthcare prioritizes remote medical services before in-person visits, blending digital and physical resources. It increases accessibility, efficiency, and cost-saving, despite potential disparities in care access. Adoption remains largely US-based but potential for global rollout exists.

Mar 1, 2024·CSO

50 years ago, businesses were paper-native; all processes were executed on paper. As computers and networks rose in popularity, businesses became compute and network-native. This digital transformation led to the rise of the CIO, but IT expenses increased under their leadership. The rise of the internet shifted corporate revenues to online sources, prompting CIOs to cut costs, resulting in less agile IT teams. This spurred engineering teams to create innovative applications unsupported by IT, prompting the birth of CISO. The rising popularity of cloud-native enterprises disrupted the traditional CIO model, leading to various teams managing their own cloud environments.

Mar 1, 2024·Forbes

Covid-19 pandemic revealed hospitals' error-driven patient harm despite heroic efforts. Rise in preventable hospital-acquired infections proved hospitals' failure in handling public health crises and infection prevention. Consequently, increased federal interest in addressing patient safety rose, with new CMS standards and White House calls for better accountability, policy oversight, and technology utilization. Post-pandically, hospitals have begun addressing these issues, with decreasing infection rates and implementing AI innovation. Cloud migration challenges and solutions identified by Nutanix include refactoring, AI integration, vendor lock-in, security, skill shortages, and lack of support. Companies can move applications to the cloud without re-writing them, utilize AI to modernize, avoid vendor lock-in by using dual vendor strategy, choose their data location for maximum security, operate with a singular team, and utilize Nutanix's good support for their Cloud Platform.

Mar 1, 2024·Healthcare Digital

Apple might enter the Smart Ring Wearable HealthTech market, competing with Samsung and market leader Oura. Indications include market growth, patent activity, and industry reports. Samsung's Galaxy Ring, a health and wellness wearable, will release in summer 2024. Speculation suggests Apple's Smart Ring could feature health tracking, gesture control, mobile payments, a small touchscreen, voice control, and authentication tools, possibly releasing in September 2024. The impact on Oura could be mixed, possibly resulting in increased market awareness and innovation, but also increased competition and price pressure.

Mar 1, 2024·Healthcare Dive

Northwell and Nuvance Health plan merger, forming 28-hospital system in New York, Connecticut pending regulatory review. Deal enables Northwell to expand into Connecticut and invest significantly in Nuvance. Current financial struggles of Nuvance could be alleviated by merger.

Mar 1, 2024·BleepingComputer

BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware gang claims responsibility for a cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group (UHG) subsidiary, Optum, causing outage of Change Healthcare platform used by over 70,000 US pharmacies. They allegedly stole 6TB of sensitive data from the platform's network, relating to thousands of healthcare providers, insurance firms, and pharmacies, among others. The stolen data allegedly includes medical, insurance, dental records, payments, claims, patient's personally identifiable information (PII), and active US military/navy personnel PII. UnitedHealth Group systems were not affected and new electronic claim procedures have been implemented. They denied using a ScreenConnect auth bypass flaw, contradicting earlier sources. US agencies earlier warned that BlackCat primarily targets the US healthcare sector.

Mar 1, 2024·The Guardian

California man, Paul Edmonds, is in remission from both HIV and acute myelogenous leukemia after a stem cell transplant. The fifth person known globally to achieve this, the 68-yr old is also the oldest and has lived with HIV the longest (31 years). Edmonds received stem cells with a rare mutation that confers HIV resistance; it replaced his with the donor's cells. Doctors consider him cured of leukemia and possibly HIV if he remains off antiretroviral therapy for another two years.

Feb 29, 2024·FutureIoT

Enterprises' acceleration in IoT deployment raises cybersecurity vulnerabilities and potential network breaches. Kenan Frager of Asimily highlights the risks of unguarded IoT systems, while stress on regulatory compliance compounds the problem. Cyber threats evolve, with routers being the prime target, representing 75% IoT infections. Ransomware attacks, botnets, DDoS attacks are common, and legacy vulnerabilities usually remain unresolved. Increased IoT attacks affect cybersecurity insurance, making it pricier and harder to obtain. Businesses' weak IoT security leads to insurance denial. Manufacturing, finance, and energy industries are chief targets. Shankar Somasundaram, CEO of Asimily, emphasizes comprehensive risk management strategies to mitigate IoT risks.

Feb 29, 2024·Axios

Tampa General Hospital prefers streamlining tech, not pilot-testing startup tools; collaborates with GE HealthCare to improve care routines. Rather than piloting, the hospital scales or eliminates tech. Their joint project with GE, the Command Center, began small and expanded based on patient care improvements. The hospital also isn't averse to abandoning unsuccessful projects. The partnership differs from those like venture firm General Catalyst's strategy to buy health systems. Tampa General is a research and academic medical center employing 8,000.

Feb 29, 2024·CBS News

Sungida Rashid died at a hospital owned by private equity-backed company Steward Health Care due to lack of immediate care. Her death has sparked public criticism against private equity ownership of hospitals. Steward owns 33 US hospitals and is accused of prioritizing profits over patient needs. Rashid's death results from unavailability of a life-saving device as unpaid bills led to its repossession. Massachusetts officials investigate her preventable death and Steward's potential hospital closures amid financial struggles. CEO Ralph de la Torre purchased a $40 million yacht while company faces supply shortages.

Feb 29, 2024·The Verge

Meta rumored to showcase Orion AR smart glasses at Meta Connect, significantly more advanced than Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and Meta Quest headsets. Although Orion glasses aren't ready for public, demo could drive AR acceptance. Expected public release in 2027, following third Ray-Ban smart glasses generation in 2025.

Feb 29, 2024·LinkedIn

Change Healthcare disruption shows fragility in digitization, affects local pharmacies and clinics nationwide, risking employees' livelihoods. Urges for robust, resilient systems, reviews digital dependencies, considers accountability amid inevitable future uncertainties.

Feb 29, 2024·Beckers Payer

Justice Department initiates antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group; scrutinizes relationships between UnitedHealthcare insurance unit and Optum health-services arm, potential favouritism in contract pricing, Medicare billing issues, and impacts of physician group acquisitions on rivals, consumers. This comes as part of wider governmental investigations into major companies under Biden's administration. UnitedHealth previously faced Justice Department challenges over mergers, acquisitions.

Feb 29, 2024·BankInfoSecurity

BlackCat ransomware group, aka Alphv, targeted US healthcare, affecting Medicare, CVS Caremark, MetLife. Ransomware service infiltrated by FBI, developed tool to decrypt affected systems. Failed federal shutdown led to targeting healthcare institutions. BlackCat claimed responsibility for significant healthcare data breach impacting various Change Healthcare clients. FBI, CISA, HHS issued warnings, suggesting mitigation actions. Extensive ransomware and data extortion operations noted.

Feb 28, 2024·FierceHealthcare

Quantum Health collaborates with Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network to manage self-funded health plans addressing employee health. New market for Quantum Health is a model to replicate with other health systems. The partnership aims to reduce healthcare costs and improve healthcare experience, using Quantum Health’s navigation platform and VHAN’s network. Quantum Health offers a simplified navigation experience, combining member and provider services and clinical care coordination. In future, regional self-insured employers will link Quantum's platform with a VHAN-powered network.

Feb 28, 2024·Healthcare IT News

Health-ISAC reports a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, attributing the breach to ConnectWise ScreenConnect vulnerabilities. Health-ISAC urged healthcare organisations to review indicators and consider risks of disengaging from Optum. Change Healthcare maintained high confidence in unaffected Optum and United systems and took its system offline in response. American Hospital Association supports the recommendations and previously advised potentially exposed healthcare organisations to disconnect from Optum. The attack source is reportedly Blackcat ransomware gang. Over 90% of US pharmacies have implemented offline processing workarounds. Despite the cyberattack, a spokesperson reported minimal impact.

Feb 28, 2024·Beckers Hospital Review

Change Healthcare's cyberattack disruption to payment/pharmacy processing operations predicted to persist. Optum subsidiary suspects nation-state behind attack. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant assists resolution. Major institutions disconnect from Change Healthcare following American Hospital Association advice. Moody's suggests incident could negatively impact Optum parent, UnitedHealth Group. Hackers believed to exploit ConnectWise ScreenConnect's vulnerabilities, infecting Change's systems with LockBit malware.

Feb 28, 2024·SC Magazine

Change Healthcare breach traced to ConnectWise vulnerabilities. Redsense identifies exfiltration pattern, contradicting LockBit involvement. ALPHV/BlackCat linked with the incident. Attack still under investigation. ConnectWise denies link, supports recovery. Cybersecurity of ScreenConnect emphasized. Timeline of events detailed.

Feb 28, 2024·Forbes

Vive2024 healthcare CIOs prioritize operational and financial efficiencies; focusing on tangible, immediate improvements despite promising AI technology. Discussion themes: increased digital health investments despite challenging vendor market; system disruption risk via Change Healthcare's cyber attack; continued Enterprise System implementation, particularly EMR/ERP with peer-recommended providers. Balancing ongoing operational efficiency and pursuit of transformative digital health solutions remains key.