Digital Health Rewired was full of highly informative presentations and discussions across many areas of healthcare, but perhaps most forward thinking were 2 days of sessions under the banner of Smart Health in Practice at the Smart Health Stage at the front of the show.
I was proud the share the stage with 4 'greats' in the space of smart health innovation: Declan Hadley UK&I Lead for Cisco, Andy Callow, CDIO at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, Stephen Dobson, CIO at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, and Matt Dugdale, Head of Clinical & Digital Innovation, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Our discussions focused around a presentation provided by Matt on how the North West Ambulance Service team has transformed its ambulances and offices to become 'Smart' using new smart technology to improve efficiency and the patient experience at the same time.
Smart hospitals are just one of many changes occurring across NHS trusts, as discrete HIT and HIoT digital systems are integrated and made interoperable by advanced new technology from Cisco, Cylera and others. But as these changes are implemented, we run the risk of gap being created between functional IT and secure IT unless cybersecurity is included from the outset. With a growing number of systems and discrete devices now 'connected' to hospital networks, patient safety and cybersecurity have become major areas of concern.
With warnings by the government to batten down the hatches across critical infrastructure industries like healthcare in the light of rising threat of cyber attack from Russia, keeping patients safe and health IT / IoT systems up and running will be a major challenge if we are to avoid another WannaCry.
My thanks also to a great audience which continued to ask questions off-stage well after our allotted time had gone and almost into the next session.
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