For decades, healthcare shortages and burnout have been a growing concern as the chasm between the care people in the world need and the number of healthcare providers available to fulfill that need continues to widen – and the situation is only getting worse. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that by the year 2033, the U.S. will experience a shortage of up to 41,900 radiologists alone. With staffing levels unable to keep up with demand, those who remain in healthcare suffer under the stress of growing patient loads, which has led to as many as 63% physicians reporting that they are experiencing symptoms of burn out.

In the face of these challenges, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) driven technologies has emerged as a pivotal solution and area for needed innovation to support healthcare professionals in confronting these complexities and give providers more bandwidth to refocus on their love of medicine and bedside care. AI can help healthcare providers streamline workflows, increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase throughput, and has already made significant progress in helping ease the stress found in radiology departments.

AI applications have huge potential to bring positive impacts on patient care and physician workload for healthcare systems. Cyber security will need to be managed diligently to prevent any cyber attacks through AI. This is especially true in healthcare, which is one of the top targets of cyberattacks with hospitals making up 30% of all large breaches.¹

As we move into 2025, cyberattack and data breach risks will only continue to rise, disrupting care and syphoning time and financial resources away from areas that could make better use of them. Just consider that the average cost of a cyberattack in the healthcare industry in 2022 was $10.1 million and it took an average of 280 days to identify and contain a breach.² This doesn’t even account for the harm that can be inflicted on individuals who are caught up in a breach, which can expose highly personal information, including social security numbers.

While cyberattacks are almost inevitable, being vulnerable to them doesn’t have to be. There are steps that each organization can take to ensure the safety of their data, including:

1. Securing connected medical devices: Connected medical devices can be a significant point of entry for cyberattacks, but these devices are not always included in a hospital’s information technology structure and security planning. Even more concerning, while newer systems are typically designed with security measures built in, older medical devices that are still in operation but were not built with these safeguards and are beyond serviceability could pose a significant weakness that could allow attackers in. Ensuring that all medical devices are secure is critical to protecting hospital and health networks’ security, as well as patient privacy, health information, and potentially even patient safety.
2. Reducing vulnerabilities: The best way to combat a cyberattack is to stop it before it can even begin. This requires taking a proactive stance and ensuring that each connected medical device works in tandem with a healthcare organization’s overarching security plan. A comprehensive plan should have security controls embedded at technical, operational, and management levels to protect the device, the data, and the network.
3. Partnering to improve risk management: Cyberattacks don’t happen to just one individual. They are organization-wide breaches that can disrupt every system in a hospital. As such, cyber security requires collaboration from all departments – from cybersecurity to the emergency department to radiology and beyond – to educate the broader staff about protecting devices from sophisticated cyber threats. Every department needs to be part of the conversation, so that every team member is educated on the importance of remaining vigilant against a possible attack. 

Ultimately, AI is a critical advancement that could take a significant burden off healthcare providers, but – as with any technology advancement – it also increases vulnerability to cyberattacks and data breaches from nefarious actors. To combat it, hospitals and health systems should focus on 2025 being the year of increasing their cybersecurity, so their healthcare providers can reap the benefits that AI has to offer.

References:

¹ Dickerson S. Why is healthcare a top target for cybersecurity threats? Securitymagazine.com. Published 2022. https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/98324-why-is-healthcare-a-top-target-for-cybersecurity-threats#:~:text=Healthcare%20organizations%20have%20experienced%20a,lives%2C%20which%20bad%20actors%20exploit. Accessed November 25, 2024.

² IBM Security. Cost of a data breach report 2022. IBM.com. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/3R8N1DZJ. Accessed November 25, 2024.