Latest / Morning Medical with Dr. Chow / Global IT Outage, Cybersecurity in Healthcare, and AI's Role in Modern Medicine

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Global IT Outage, Cybersecurity in Healthcare, and AI's Role in Modern Medicine · Morning Medical with Dr. Chow

• 0:00
  Welcome to Morning Medical with Dr.
• 0:02
  Chow, your daily update on the latest medical and health news from around the world.
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  I am Dr.
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  Chi-Ming Chow, a cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
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  Today, we're diving into a significant event that has sent shockwaves through the healthcare
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  system globally: an IT outage that has raised serious resilience and security concerns.
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  Health systems around the world are dealing with cancelled appointments and other
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  disruptions to services in the wake of the global IT outage that hit on Friday.
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  This outage is now thought to be the largest cyber event in history.
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  Microsoft has reported that around eight and a half million computers worldwide have been
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  affected by a misconfigured software update from cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike.
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  This misconfiguration caused machines using Windows software – many of which were
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  supporting critical infrastructure – to experience the dreaded 'blue screen of death'.
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  In an update posted on Saturday, Microsoft stated that, while less than one percent of
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  Windows computers worldwide were affected, 'the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the
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  use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.' In healthcare, this
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  resulted in primary care doctors struggling to access patients' electronic health records,
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  pharmacies unable to process prescriptions, and hospitals having to defer treatments, including
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  elective surgeries and radiotherapy.
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  Some biopharma companies have also reported limited exposure to the problem.
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  The outage, which has been felt across the United States, Europe, and other parts of the
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  globe, has left healthcare services resorting to manual record-keeping to guide and provide
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  care while IT teams work around the clock to get systems back online.
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  In the United Kingdom, for example, the problem is focused mainly on general practitioner
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  surgeries and pharmacies, with only a limited impact on hospitals.
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  Meanwhile, in the United States, electronic health records were offline at hospitals
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  including Mass General Brigham and Dana Farber, forcing non-emergency procedures to be
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  postponed.
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  'The National Health Service has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption,
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  including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone
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  systems to contact your general practitioner,' said an NHS spokesperson.
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  'Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise.'
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  With the situation easing and systems starting to come back online, the fear now is that
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  cybercriminals will exploit the disruption by releasing code claimed to help systems recover,
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  but which could open a back door to allow ransomware attacks or data theft.
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  Just a couple of weeks ago, a cyberattack disrupted hospitals and general practitioner
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  practices in London in what is now thought to be the work of a Russian criminal network.
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  This led to the postponement of non-emergency patient care and the transfer of operations
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  requiring blood transfusion to other unaffected hospitals.
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  Along with security concerns, discussions are now focused on the widespread disruption caused
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  by the software update.
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  Questions are being raised about the fragility of the systems that healthcare and other
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  critical infrastructures rely on every day.
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  'We have to realise this could have been a lot worse,' said Adam Leon Smith, a cyber security
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  expert and fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT in the United Kingdom.
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  'Microsoft Windows is not the main operating system used for mission-critical systems.
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  It is Linux.'
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  'We have to look at the complex supply chain infrastructure that is providing the systems,
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  services, and products we rely on every day,' added Smith.
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  'Software should be a priority when we are planning from a national resilience point of
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  view.' On the other hand, Professor Jon Crowcroft, Marconi professor of communications
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  systems at the University of Cambridge, said, 'While it is true that we have a lot of
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  dependence on too small a number of software or service components and we need more diversity,
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  it is worth noting that three sites I use that are Microsoft cloud-based are all completely
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  OK, so CrowdStrike is not as widely used or pervasive as some of the hyperbole suggests.'
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  He added, 'There are other possibly larger cloud or internet cybersecurity defences, such
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  as Cloudflare; if this had happened with that, it would likely have been a lot more serious.'
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  Let's join a meeting of healthcare executives in 1985.
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  A dozen men in big-shouldered suits sit around a conference table, buzzing with excitement.
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  A miraculous new technology is becoming ubiquitous in doctors’ offices across America,
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  one that promises to increase access to information, improve workflows, and
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  revolutionize healthcare as we know it: the fax machine.
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  You already know how that worked out.
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  Fast forward to 2024.
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  The shoulder pads have gotten smaller, but the mindset remains eerily unchanged.
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  As the industry eagerly wades into the world of artificial intelligence, its focus is largely
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  on using this new technology to make internal processes more efficient, tweak workflows, and
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  reduce administrative burden.
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  Noble efforts, no doubt.
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  And yet I find myself asking: what about the bigger picture?
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  A failure of imagination.
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  This was the phrase that astronaut Frank Borman used to identify the underlying cause of the
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  fire that claimed the lives of three of his fellow Apollo astronauts: because NASA
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  engineers had failed even to imagine the possibility of an oxygen fire during a ground
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  test, they were powerless to prevent it.
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  The organization’s single-minded focus on its own goals and expectations, so often a
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  strength, had proved to be its greatest weakness.
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  The same could be said of the United States healthcare system, which has been frequently
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  caught off-guard by such 'unexpected' challenges as the rise of retail health, the
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  demands of an aging population with increasing rates of chronic illnesses, and electronic
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  health record systems implemented without consideration for how they would exchange data,
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  to name a few.
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  At the time, these challenges seemed unimaginable.
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  In retrospect, they were hiding in plain sight all along.
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  While healthcare is busy piloting artificial intelligence to gain operational efficiencies,
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  patients are using it to circumvent the challenges of the healthcare system altogether.
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  No longer just passive recipients of care, these patients — or, more accurately,
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  'healthcare consumers' — have become knowledgeable, proactive participants in their
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  own health and well-being.
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  With smart wearables and large language models like ChatGPT at their fingertips, they are
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  turning to artificial intelligence for everything from self-diagnosis to free
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  psychotherapy.
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  This does not mean healthcare consumers do not understand the need for doctors, only that it
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  is in our nature as human beings to solve our problems with whatever tools we have available.
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  Artificial intelligence represents the single biggest opportunity to fundamentally transform
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  healthcare since antibiotics.
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  It is not too late for healthcare to prevent another failure of imagination.
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  Here is how:
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  Find the edge.
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  If you want to be on the cutting edge, you have to know where it is.
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  Widen your focus beyond your organization and get inspired by investigating all the weird and
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  wonderful ways people are leveraging artificial intelligence to better their lives —
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  financially, physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and so on.
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  Now, imagine how those ideas might be applied in healthcare — not just to improve current
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  processes but to overcome the challenges of the healthcare system that every stakeholder
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  struggles with.
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  Early artificial intelligence adopters are already pointing to the answers; healthcare
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  just needs to open its eyes and mind.
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  Here is an example: Earlier this month, a columnist for The New York Times shared his
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  experience with making artificial intelligence friends.
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  Imagine what that might mean for healthcare.
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  Could artificial intelligence be leveraged to solve for the loneliness epidemic, for
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  instance?
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  Before you dismiss the idea as absurd, think of the millions of people whom the pandemic has
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  isolated, who have social anxiety, whose circles of family and friends have been thinned
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  by time and so on.
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  What difference might an always accessible artificial intelligence friend make in their
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  lives?
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  How might artificial intelligence reduce the immense burden of depression on the healthcare
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  system?
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  Embrace the genie.
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  We cannot put artificial intelligence back in the bottle.
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  Instead of raging against the machines, spend your energy working to influence what is coming
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  whether healthcare likes it or not.
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  Instead of thrashing around asking 'how can we prevent patients from using artificial
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  intelligence for medical advice?', ask 'how can we leverage artificial intelligence to empower
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  patients — especially the millions who cannot afford or otherwise access the care they need?'
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  Make no mistake: this is a tool that has the power to redefine population health at a scale
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  we have never even dreamt of.
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  Why not harness that power in a way that works for everyone?
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  Think like a patient.
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  Instead of asking how artificial intelligence can make your scheduling process more
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  efficient, ask how artificial intelligence might help patients find and schedule the care
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  they need.
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  This small shift in perspective can make a big difference: by framing your use cases in a way
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  that is meant to benefit the people you serve, you will find yourself developing unexpected
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  solutions that are more likely to get adopted and be successful.
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  Win-win.
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  Rethink the patient-provider dynamic.
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  The time is coming when patients will come into their visits armed with more knowledge than
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  their providers.
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  In fact, it might already be here.
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  No, they will not have gone to medical school overnight, but they will have used artificial
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  intelligence to analyze their symptoms and home in on a few possible diagnoses.
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  Patients may already know what tests need to be ordered to confirm a diagnosis or how their
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  genotype might respond to a particular treatment.
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  I say this not to discount the continued need for physicians but to pose the question: what
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  might this future look like?
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  With time, artificial intelligence will undoubtedly become more accurate, reliable, and
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  adopted, profoundly altering the dynamics of the patient-doctor relationship.
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  By embracing artificial intelligence-driven patient empowerment now, healthcare can not
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  only be ready for the shift but also help mold the future into one that blends the best skills
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  of human physicians with artificial intelligence models’ efficiency and eventual
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  precision.
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  The key will be doing so with input from the users: healthcare consumers.
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  The future is collaborative.
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  The dynamics of care delivery have already begun to shift, whether healthcare likes it or
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  not.
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  Artificial intelligence is so much more than a tool for maximizing internal efficiency: it is
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  an opportunity to think transformatively about the very nature of human well-being and the
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  business of health.
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  And it is an opportunity to collaborate alongside healthcare consumers to shape what
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  will be.
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  Success will come when everyone’s lives are made simpler and more enjoyable.
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  And failure?
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  That comes when you fail to imagine what is hiding in plain sight.
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  Do not let your imagination fail you now.
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  That's all for today's episode of Morning Medical with Dr.
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  Chow.
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  Thank you for joining me as we navigated these critical topics in healthcare.
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  Stay tuned for more updates and insights on the latest in medical and health news.
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  Until next time, stay healthy and stay informed.