In a formal ceremony November 7, Methodist Hospital of Southern California will receive ECRI Institute’s 8th Annual Health Devices Achievement Award for its Cybersecurity Program.
This elite national award from the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization that researches the best approaches to improving patient care recognizes an outstanding initiative undertaken by an ECRI Institute member healthcare institution that improves patient safety, reduces costs or otherwise facilitates better strategic management of health technology.
“This award signifies our commitment to patient care and safety in all areas of the organization,” said Dan Ausman, Methodist Hospital President and CEO.
The hospital’s winning submission, Redefining Medical Equipment Management and Giving a Solution to Vulnerabilities from New Medical Device Technology, describes its development of a new integrated systems management program that identifies equipment vulnerabilities related to patient safety, information availability and cybersecurity that result from the introduction of advanced and increasingly complex medical devices in the healthcare setting.
“We are honored that ECRI Institute has recognized the innovative systems-based approach our team took to address medical device cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” said Anthony Coronado, Methodist Hospital biomedical engineering manager. The biomedical engineering team revised its procedures for incoming inspections and ongoing device oversight to include verifying the cybersecurity of networked devices and the protected health information they contain.
“Our integrated systems management program was developed by a team who was committed to ensuring patient safety and delivering better healthcare,” Coronado said. He was a featured presenter in a recent ECRI Institute web conference, “Tackling Medical Device Cybersecurity.”
“The cybersecurity risk with medical devices is a serious and emerging concern which most hospitals have yet to significantly address,” said ECRI Institute’s James Keller, Jr., vice president, health technology evaluation and safety.
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“We congratulate Methodist Hospital for this important initiative—it sets a great example for other hospitals on how to tackle this issue.”
