Preparing for compounding crises: Staff shortages and cyber-attack vulnerability in the era of COVID-19
Abstract
In 2020, while the USA was experiencing successive waves of COVID-19, Universal Health Services experienced a major cyber attack that crippled electronic systems in over 200 hospitals, including a major academic medical centre that was playing a key regional role in COVID-19 care and clinical trials. This paper discusses the impact of the attack on clinical operations, informatics, research and teaching, contextualising the case study within more wide-scale trends driving the rise in cyber attacks on healthcare systems. The compounding relationships between COVID-19, healthcare workforce depletion and cyber-security vulnerabilities form the framework of the discussion and action plan. Commitments to institutional best practices, large-scale investments in infrastructure, and above all increasing support for the critical human actors carrying out the work, are urgently needed to secure the healthcare system against these destabilising threats. Within this context, this paper argues that information security in the healthcare sector must be reimagined and integrated with greater support for the needs of frontline healthcare workers.
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Author's Biography
Joshua Klindienst is an emergency physician at multiple clinical sites in the state of Maryland. Outside the emergency room his interests include physician education, event medicine, emergency planning and disaster response. He is also passionate about adaptation, teamwork and responsive patient care. Joshua is a member of the Maryland Task Force-1 Urban Search and Rescue team and has served as assistant medical director for the Wells Fargo Championship. He received his medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine.
Shant Ayanian is an assistant professor of medicine at the Alix School of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. He received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut, and master’s degrees in bioinformatics and data science from the George Washington University. His research interests include the use of artificial intelligence systems with electronic medical records, the integration of genomics data with clinical data, and the study of methodologies for informatics process integration.
Jeff Schlegelmilch is the Deputy Director for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute, Columbia University. He oversees projects related to the practice of disaster preparedness and guides the development of strategic planning for the centre. His areas of expertise include public health policy and preparedness, community resilience and public-private partnerships.
Hana Akselrod is an assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Since 2020 she has played a key part in pandemic response, including roles as clinical trials investigator, as co-director of the GW COVID-19 Intelligence Unit and GW COVID-19 Recovery Clinic, and as the GW Medical Faculty Associates COVID-19 Response Lead. Prior to this, her research interests focused on infectious disease epidemiology and public health systems response. She is a founding member of the GW Climate and Health Institute. She attended the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health.
Citation
Klindienst, Joshua, Ayanian, Shant, Schlegelmilch, Jeff and Akselrod, Hana (2022, December 15). Preparing for compounding crises: Staff shortages and cyber-attack vulnerability in the era of COVID-19. In the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Volume 16, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.69554/OVNM2568.
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