Report on Improving Cybersecurity in the Health Care Industry

Citation
Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force, Report on Improving Health Care Industry Cybersecurity (June 2017) (full-text).

Overview
The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 provided a much needed opportunity to convene public and private sector subject matter experts to spend the last year discussing and developing recommendations on the growing challenge of cyber attacks targeting health care. As public and private sector Co-Chairs of the Task Force, we worked diligently to balance industry and government perspectives and to solicit input from outside stakeholders and the general public.

The Task Force's discussions resulted in the development of six imperatives along with cascading recommendations and action items. All of these reflect the need for a unified effort &mdash; among public and private sector organizations of all sizes and across all sub-sectors &mdash; to work together to meet an urgent challenge. They also reflect a shared understanding that for the health care industry cybersecurity issues are, at their heart, patient safety issues. As health care becomes increasingly dependent on information technology, our ability to protect our systems will have an ever greater impact on the health of the patients we serve. While much of what we recommend will require hard work, difficult decisions, and commitment of resources, we will be encouraged and unified by our shared values as health care industry professionals and our commitment to providing safe, high quality care.