Andrea Fox

Since its botched Microsoft security update this past week, most healthcare organizations seem to be resuming normal operations. But one of the largest IT snafus ever shows that the industry must better prepare for third-party technology disruptions.

CrowdSrike says the BSOD outage for Microsoft Windows was caused by a botched security update. It has resulted in surgical cancellations, ambulance diversions and other patient care disruptions at doctors' offices, ERs and hospitals around the globe.

Rural providers are using use voice AI to manage administrative burden and the government funding NLP research into improving the cultural sensitivity of mental healthcare. Other companies, meanwhile, have announced new secure-by-design certifications.

The seven-state health system seeks to standardize its patient-monitoring tools and processes at 49 hospitals and hundreds of care sites via the partnership.

When able to access patient-specific medical data, an integrated chatbot was accurate, complete and as empathetic as human providers in its message replies – but also long-winded and more complex, according to research from NYU Langone.

The companies will further develop speech-to-text technology that takes healthcare provider's notes and can upload key excerpts to EHR-agnostic files, while the agency accepts feedback on the sole-source solicitations.

Writing to the health secretary and the deputy national security advisor, the lawmaker cited recent cyber hygiene failures by healthcare organizations and asked the agency to propose mandatory minimum cyber standards already under consideration.

By never losing sight of patient care, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other technologies can help to transition healthcare from a reactive, fee-for-service model to a value-based, proactive one, says one tech strategist.

Another week, another leak of personally identifiable information and protected health information at more than one major health organization. This time, a critical access hospital and a department of public health are attacked by ransomware.

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is working to draw attention to FDA’s medical device regulation of light-sensing technology used to measure a critical vital sign.