The U.S. is on alert regarding Russian hackers who may be targeting healthcare and other infrastructure. What has officials concerned? I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and we’ll see if we can tease out the answer to that and more in this week’s Top Stories.
Three federal agencies issued a joint alert this week about Russian state-sponsored cyber operations and threats to U.S. critical infrastructure. HeathcareITNews reports (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/feds-sound-alert-russian-cyber-threats-amid-potential-ukraine-escalation) that the Cybersecurity Advisory has outlined Russian threat actors' commonly observed tactics, techniques and procedures, and offered detection actions, incident-response guidance and suggested mitigations. The agency said state-sponsored Russian actors have targeted a variety of critical infrastructure entities, including healthcare organizations. The alert comes amid diplomatic rumblings about Russia and Ukraine from the U.S. government.
In response to ongoing staffing shortages across the healthcare industry, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has directed the commonwealth's Department of Public Health to release a number of emergency orders meant to ease strain on the healthcare system, including letting qualified physician assistants practice independently. According to Healthcare Finance News (https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/massachusetts-governor-releases-emergency-orders-ease-strain-healthcare-system), the Massachusetts healthcare system has been facing a critical staffing shortage, contributing to the loss of about 700 medical/surgical and ICU hospital beds since the beginning of 2021. Hospitals are also seeing many more patients than usual, the majority due to non-COVID-19-related reasons. The situation is emblematic of staffing woes throughout the country as the Omicron variant contributes to yet another COVID-19 surge.
Finally this week, Thread, a North Carolina startup focused on decentralized clinical research tech, announced its purchase of voice-powered research company inVibe for an undisclosed sum. As we see in MobiHealthNews (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/decentralized-clinical-trial-platform-thread-scoops-voice-tech-invibe), inVibe uses machine learning algorithms and human analysis to capture data and gain insights. The technology can be used to collect real-world patient voice data during a clinical trial. Following the acquisition, inVibe's technology will be incorporated into Thread's decentralized research platform.
I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and this has been Top Stories.